# Bluegill management.



## EyeBaller (Jan 26, 2013)

I bought some land about 10 years ago that has a 6 acre pond. It is spring fed and has a max depth of 28 ft. Pond has a good population of bass, and bluegill along with a few striper, Chanel cat, and amurs. When I first started fishing it 10 years ago we would catch monster 9-11 inch true bluegills(not hybrid). Now it seems the bluegill have multiplied at an alarming rate. In the past 3 years we have not been able to catch any over 8 inches. We also harvest over 200 gills a year for fish fry to try and knock down the population. Any help, suggestions, advice would be greatly appreciated. I am new to pond management and would like to learn. Thanks


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## HatersGonnaHate (Jun 4, 2013)

If I was you I would wait either do one of a couple things. 

Start throwing away all the small gills you catch.

Keep more then 200 a year

Or add some more bigger predator fish.

A small pond/lake is very hard to manage due to the size makes it hard to naturally balance itself. At 28 ft that is a very good depth to produce big fish so you could have a good mine there. Just my thoughts. Also adding a few 1-2 flatheads might cut down on the bluegill population a lot but I wouldn't add many of them


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## BornWithGills (Feb 26, 2006)

I would try saugeye you've got the depth for them to be successful and they will aggressively feed on bluegill. Plus they are fun to catch.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

I would start letting friends fish the pond for gills only. of course using worms your going to catch a few bass by accident if its loaded with bass.

how is the bass fishing on your pond? are you catching a lot of smaller bass and few big ones?? if you are catching mostly small bass then they probably need thinned out also.
sherman


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## CRAPPIECOMMANDER (Feb 25, 2006)

You need more predators. If you do a quick search on the web you will find many studies about what size of largemouth bass feed primarily on smaller gills increasing the population of those would be my suggestion. The only reason gills don't reach their full potential in any body of water is due to a lack of food to grow more (normally this is caused by an overpopulation of themselves). You stated that in the past you caught 11" fish so that should be the goal size in your pond. I talked extensively to an ODNR fish management employee and long story short Bluegills have the same life span no matter the body of water they are in in Ohio. Therefore if the biggest ones you ever catch are 8" then most likely that is their max size in your body of water with the current amount of available food at the end of their life cycle. This is what was determined in the body of water I was concerned about unfortunately it was public so there was nothing I could do. I have however seen two small ponds that had the same dilemma you have make a rebound once there was a strict size and bag limit put on Largemouth Bass.


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## EyeBaller (Jan 26, 2013)

sherman51 said:


> I would start letting friends fish the pond for gills only. of course using worms your going to catch a few bass by accident if its loaded with bass.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The bass bass situation is exactly what you said. Lots of small bass and few Giants ranging 4-6 pounds.


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

I added four channels to the 1/2 acre pond out front and they knocked down the gil's but are now raiding the small bass. I have caught one around 30" but also caught one around 15" which says they spawned so now I have a different problem. Just be careful what you add. Personally, I would vote for saugeye as their probability of repro is low.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

As stated above by many, the only way to increase the bluegill size if to reduce their numbers to a level that allows for sustained growth from their available food supply. That normally requires removal through fishing effort, predation or a combination of both. With a 6 acre pond I doubt you will be able to make much impact through fishing and will need to rely on a substantial predator base to remove the majority of the young of the year bluegill. 

You didn't say how much cover and weed growth you have in this pond. If there is a lot of weed growth and cover for young fish to hide predators will not be able to have as much effect as a pond with little cover for them escape predation. 

I have a much smaller pond, 3/4 acre, with a high population of small bass and a good population of big bluegill, up to 1-1/2 lbs. I do have 6-7 large channel cats left and a good population of large black crappie. There is not a lot of cover in my pond. The smaller bluegill get consumed pretty readily allowing more food for the remaining gills to grow larger. I also supplemental feed a high protein Purina AquaMax fish food every evening.

If I had your pond and wanted to make an quick impact in the panfish population I would probably stock a bunch of the largest hybrid stripers that I could get from a hatchery.

I would encourage you to call one of the reputable hatcheries, ATAC, JONES, in Ohio and have an evaluation done on your pond. They could then tell you exactly what you need to do to achieve your desired results. That's what they do, that's what they have been educated to do. Everything else you are getting from us is just opinion based upon what we have read or heard.

I can't begin to tell you how fortunate you are to have a 6 acre pond to work with. I would love to have that much water to work with. What a nice problem to have.


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## EyeBaller (Jan 26, 2013)

Thanks for all the tips guys.


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## toddparker (Apr 21, 2012)

Be careful catching and throwing away the bluegill. My mom did that 15 years ago and it completely screwed up the ecosystem of the pond. Our bass ended up starving because the bluegill that were left did not reproduce. We had to stock the pond slowly and are ok again. I agree with a few catfish or saugeye. Anything that could naturally reduce the population.


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## coachfozz (Mar 19, 2006)

Now I am not an expert, but if you have people come over to catch the bluegill. Make it a slot size. So any fish under 5 or 6 inches goes back in and any over 9 gets thrown back in. This would keep the bass happy and you still have gills in there that will reproduce.


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