"Hey Bruce! Did you ever try the MT Hellgrammites and Nymphs? The Black and natural colors have…"
Do you love big bluegill?
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Started this discussion. Last reply by Zach Pierce Oct 20, 2010.
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What I don't like about big CC is 1) the amount of feed they consume (I hate buying 40% protein fish feed for my BG & LMB/HSB and seeing it hoovered up by a catfish who won't know the difference from cheaper 32% stuff), 2) the amount of biomass in my pond they take up, and 3) the way they taste (it's OK, but I don't like catfish as much as BG or bass). I am real sure that while they prey on BG, they are less effective predators than LMB on a pound-for-pound basis. I want some CC in my pond and I'd like a couple of them to be humongous, but I will continue to remove most of them I catch this year as I have done the last 2-3 years.
BG spawning is too prolific to be wiped out by any predator, or probably any combo of predators. If you are managing for big BG (that is the name of the website), however, any reduction in BG numbers in any of the smaller sizes is a good thing. I don't think cats are as good at this as LMB, but if you want catfish in your pond, a reasonable number of them won't (noticeably) hurt your BG management efforts. If you don't want them, they aren't necessary and you may as well remove as many as you want/can catch.
I will add that 3 large CC in 30 minutes is 2 more than I have ever caught in that amount of time in my 1 acre pond (stocked with 100 CC originally, with some successful CC recruitment since then). You may have a higher density of CC than I do (even higher than I once had). Or maybe you're a much better (cat)fisherman than I am - that wouldn't be too hard. Any idea how many of them you have in there?
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You got a nice low member number.
Bruce