A few from my pond

[JestersHK]

8 hours ago, Seth said:

That's not longer true. @JestersHK will run to Arkansas after every Taney trip to stock up on it.

Tis true I may have a thing for Yuengling...

It's for sale in Texas now as well. They are branching out after partnering with Coors.

Just remember you can't buy alcohol on Sunday in Arkansas... well unless you find a shady liquor store and promise to buy every case of yuengling they have. 

 

[gotmuddy]

16 hours ago, JestersHK said:

Tis true I may have a thing for Yuengling...

It's for sale in Texas now as well. They are branching out after partnering with Coors.

Just remember you can't buy alcohol on Sunday in Arkansas... well unless you find a shady liquor store and promise to buy every case of yuengling they have. 

 

Depends on the county.  Baxter county(home of jigfest) allows sunday sales, as well as marion

[45acp]

My fish made it through the winter in good shape.

 

 

 

 

[FishnDave]

Very healthy fish!

You may already know this, but I've thought it was interesting, and good info to know from literature and pond management seminars I've attended.  To get the most out of your bluegills (and I assume its true for other sunfish species as well), you want to leave the big males.  They sort of set the size bar for the population...the biggest males build/guard nests, fertilize the eggs, and keep (most of) the smaller bluegills from spawning, which allows those smaller bluegills to grow more quickly to the size of the big ones.  If you harvest the big breeding males, the smaller fish will nest, and the max size of the population decreases.  You can keep all the females, any size, you want. 

This is an oversimplification, but is the latest research-based advice.  Take it or leave it.   Your fish look great!

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, 45acp said:

My fish made it through the winter in good shape.

 

 

 

 

Simply wonderful. Beautiful fishes. 

[45acp]

1 hour ago, FishnDave said:

To get the most out of your bluegills (and I assume its true for other sunfish species as well), you want to leave the big males.

I've heard that exact thing from many sources.  Trouble is, I don't want any bluegill in my pond.  They snuck in with a batch of redear fingerlings that I bought from NEMO in 2019 (long story).  I remove every bluegill that I catch that's under 9".  7"-9" get butchered and eaten.  Under 7" go in my bait pond to be used as flathead candy on the river.  Over 9" they go back in to grow, and as you mentioned, hopefully keep most of the smaller males out of the beds.

The reason for that... I stocked the pond with redear, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, and hybrid striped bass.  Smallmouth bass don't have a large enough gape to adequately control bluegill numbers.  The hybrids help out on the smaller BG, but they can't do much with the big ones.

I soak traps 24/7 from March-November, and hook-n-line several times a week in hopes of keeping the numbers down.  About once a month I'll take the Wehebe out at feeding time and throw that thing at them until they've all run to the other side of the pond.

So far I've been successful at keeping the bluegills in check.  It's likely they will overrun me eventually, though.  When that happens I'll bucket stock some 12"+ largemouth and the cool water fishery experiment will come to an end.

[Devan S.]

1 hour ago, 45acp said:

When that happens I'll bucket stock some 12"+ largemouth and the cool water fishery experiment will come to an end.

Interesting thought. Could you instead stock some med-size flatties instead?

 

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, 45acp said:

I've heard that exact thing from many sources.  Trouble is, I don't want any bluegill in my pond.  They snuck in with a batch of redear fingerlings that I bought from NEMO in 2019 (long story).  I remove every bluegill that I catch that's under 9".  7"-9" get butchered and eaten.  Under 7" go in my bait pond to be used as flathead candy on the river.  Over 9" they go back in to grow, and as you mentioned, hopefully keep most of the smaller males out of the beds.

The reason for that... I stocked the pond with redear, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, and hybrid striped bass.  Smallmouth bass don't have a large enough gape to adequately control bluegill numbers.  The hybrids help out on the smaller BG, but they can't do much with the big ones.

I soak traps 24/7 from March-November, and hook-n-line several times a week in hopes of keeping the numbers down.  About once a month I'll take the Wehebe out at feeding time and throw that thing at them until they've all run to the other side of the pond.

So far I've been successful at keeping the bluegills in check.  It's likely they will overrun me eventually, though.  When that happens I'll bucket stock some 12"+ largemouth and the cool water fishery experiment will come to an end.

                  I would like to add I want to be your friend!  What a paradise. A flyrod dream for sunfish.

[45acp]

I've heard guys talk about using flathead for crowd control in ponds, but I've never talked to one who actually did it.

My pond is already a biology experiment.  I don't want to make the situation worse by putting something in that is capable of eating my very expensive smallmouth bass and yellow perch.

The bluegill are a nuisance, but so far they are proving to be a manageable nuisance.  Being able to walk across my front yard to collect a fish fry or a weekend's worth of trotline bait isn't a terrible thing either.

 

 

[Ham]

I had friends put a Big Flathead in a pond FULL of small Green Sunfish.  Before too long, there was just the Big Flathead. 
they still could not catch him.

I really think putting a Flathead in there would be a terrible mistake, but it would be interesting to see it play out.