Raising / Managing CNB - Bluegill - Big Bluegill2024-03-29T05:59:46Zhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/forum/topics/raising-managing-cnb?groupUrl=coppernosebluegill&commentId=2036984%3AComment%3A627752&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noOk, I will make plans to drop…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2015-08-18:2036984:Comment:6277522015-08-18T20:54:28.477ZShannon H. Dyehttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/ShannonHDye
Ok, I will make plans to drop the level of the pond and apply rotenone this winter and start fresh.
Ok, I will make plans to drop the level of the pond and apply rotenone this winter and start fresh. Well, as the saying goes, the…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2015-08-18:2036984:Comment:6279282015-08-18T20:15:04.611ZTony Livingstonhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/TonyLivingston
<p>Well, as the saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Pond management is a lot like that, with different strategies employed to end up with the same results. Still, in my opinion it's hard to beat starting with a fresh slate. I'm sure that is the least desirable option for you, but it does make a certain amount of sense to kill and drain, make improvements to the pond and structure, (deepen those shallow areas?), and most importantly from my point of view, re-stock with the best…</p>
<p>Well, as the saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Pond management is a lot like that, with different strategies employed to end up with the same results. Still, in my opinion it's hard to beat starting with a fresh slate. I'm sure that is the least desirable option for you, but it does make a certain amount of sense to kill and drain, make improvements to the pond and structure, (deepen those shallow areas?), and most importantly from my point of view, re-stock with the best genetics you can find.</p>
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<p>Your stated goal is to try and grow trophy coppernose bluegills, so why take the chance on fish with an unknown pedigree? Sure, they may grow into trophies, but then again their genetic makeup may not favor that at all. Feeding is a huge part of growing giant fish, but having the right genetics cannot be overstated....a fish needs to be genetically predisposed for exceptional growth to make the most out of all the hard work you're going to put into that pond. Plus, once the pond is killed off you won't have to guess about what you THINK is in there, you will know, because you're the only person stocking the pond. Or at least you need to be. Many a future trophy pond has been disrupted by well meaning intentions on the part of the pond owner, or want-to-be-helpful friends/neighbors/family.</p>
<p>I know it's not what you want to hear, but my recommendation is to start fresh, and do it right the first time.</p> Tony, there were no bluegills…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2015-08-18:2036984:Comment:6279232015-08-18T19:03:19.557ZShannon H. Dyehttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/ShannonHDye
Tony, there were no bluegills in the pond. I may have made a mistake but we added about 200 we caught from a friend's pond 2" - 3" long plus about a dozen that were 6" to 8" long. I also caught 40 coppernose from another pond ranging from 8" - 9" and put them in as well. I'm thinking about taking the kids and catching everything out in the way of bluegills and shell crackers but I don't want to lose the bass I have and they are way to small to try to eat. I truly hate starting fresh but if I…
Tony, there were no bluegills in the pond. I may have made a mistake but we added about 200 we caught from a friend's pond 2" - 3" long plus about a dozen that were 6" to 8" long. I also caught 40 coppernose from another pond ranging from 8" - 9" and put them in as well. I'm thinking about taking the kids and catching everything out in the way of bluegills and shell crackers but I don't want to lose the bass I have and they are way to small to try to eat. I truly hate starting fresh but if I have to I will. What do you think I should do? Going to drain, kill off, and…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2015-08-18:2036984:Comment:6279212015-08-18T18:54:42.743ZTony Livingstonhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/TonyLivingston
<p>Going to drain, kill off, and start fresh?</p>
<p>Going to drain, kill off, and start fresh?</p> Part 2:
Luckily enough I came…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2015-08-18:2036984:Comment:6279182015-08-18T17:01:12.324ZShannon H. Dyehttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/ShannonHDye
Part 2:<br />
Luckily enough I came across some property for sale in the summer of 2015, with a two acre pond. A small town outside of Alexander City, Alabama, by the name of Kellyton, would be my new hobby farm. The listing read, “A great home site on 11 acres, planted pines 15 years old with a 2 acre pond loaded with bass”. Immediately the add struck my interest with the pond and caught my attention with the bass. Soon I was signing papers and the cash was changing hands.<br />
The next day I visited the…
Part 2:<br />
Luckily enough I came across some property for sale in the summer of 2015, with a two acre pond. A small town outside of Alexander City, Alabama, by the name of Kellyton, would be my new hobby farm. The listing read, “A great home site on 11 acres, planted pines 15 years old with a 2 acre pond loaded with bass”. Immediately the add struck my interest with the pond and caught my attention with the bass. Soon I was signing papers and the cash was changing hands.<br />
The next day I visited the place; other than a quick peek at the photos or standing along the roadside, to find a pond where the upper quarter had washed in to no more than 3 feet deep.<br />
Nevertheless, smiles came when I saw dozens of beds in the shallows and large, hand sized panfish streaking through the water chasing off largemouth intruders.<br />
Sadly there was much unwanted growth covering over three quarters of the bank choking the ponds’ edge. Large, heavy trunked bushes gripped both sides of the dam which we all know will cause leaks. I’ve read blogs where people unknowingly suggest that bushes and trees be left to grow around ponds and on dams, “bugs live in the bushes and trees and fall in the water which the fish eat”, I’ve heard stated.<br />
As with many people born in this great country; especially those us from the south, I came to know fishing at a very young age. Be it with my mom and dad at age 4, fishing for crappie from that old bridge in the gap until the early hours of the morning or sneaking off to the creek with my cousin as a young teen to catch those yellow bellied bream or Red eye bass on homemade cane poles, I was hooked.<br />
As time progressed and I grew older my skills became sharper or the baits got better but just like with everything else in life, as soon as I thought I had it all figured out I was shown otherwise. I have lost more big ones than I have ever landed. Everyone who has ever hooked and lost a heavy fish swears it to be 3 or 4 times larger than it actually was and we all know, the big one always gets away right?<br />
In 1982, I caught my first bass weighing two pounds. Fishing early one morning from the pier of my aunt’s cabin I got my first taste of the largemouth addiction on a willow fly and bream hook from Lake Martin in Alabama. It was soon hanging on my wall as a birthday gift. A couple of years later fishing in a pond on a golf course in south Florida, while my great uncle Tommy, played the back nine, I landed a five pounder on a top water popper. I wanted to mount it as well but he refused and taught me that a bass should weigh in the eight pound range or more to be considered a trophy but a trophy is different to each of us. I fished around, not professionally of course over the next years catching numerous bass up to the six pound range but never more.<br />
At age 20, fishing one evening after I got off work, I pulled a nine pound four ounce bass from the bed. A couple weeks later I took another bass to the taxidermist weighing in at eleven pounds two ounces. Two great trophies in 2 weeks. That’s the stuff people only dream of. Odd thing though, I caught both bass from a private pond and the second came from the same bed where the first had been caught. The pond I was fishing had been abandoned several years before in preparation for a new subdivision. Getting in there through the under growth was hard enough and casting a line was even harder but the rewards were great. Later that same spring I walked away with a stinger full of red ears or shell crackers as the country folk’s call them, weighing over thirty pounds. All summer, knowing they were going to drain and fill in that pond, I took home catfish and crappie along with bass ranging in the two pound up to six range and more red ears than I could carry.<br />
I have continued to fish over the years teaching my kids in the late 90’s starting them off at age three on the small little bluegills in my uncle’s catfish pond before moving them up to larger fish like those ten pound cats. I started taking my granddaughter at age 3, who immediately became my fishing buddy, now taking my little 2 year old grandson and needless to say; I think they are hooked although the little man seems to get bored rather quickly.<br />
As I walked around the pond through the waist high weeds and briars, red bugs and ticks; I saw numerous small bass under twelve inches and dozens of two inch fathead minnows skirting the edges followed by several four inch panfish. I turned my attention away from the growth around the pond and the work to be done, went back to the truck and collected my fishing gear.<br />
When I returned from the truck, I fished with my favorite ZOOM, salty worms and caught dozens of bass; none over twelve inches. I knew then with this stock of bass that my dream of owning and producing a trued trophy coppernose pond could easily be a reality. Best of luck Shannon! We'll b…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2015-08-17:2036984:Comment:6275492015-08-17T12:14:43.179ZTony Livingstonhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/TonyLivingston
<p>Best of luck Shannon! We'll be watching and pulling for you. I can tell you, from years spent studying, raising, and interacting with bluegills, that growing monsters takes a great deal more than food. Embarking on a quest to grow monster bluegills can be both rewarding and frustrating. I am confident you will learn a lot, and come away with even more appreciation for this remarkable fish.</p>
<p>Best of luck Shannon! We'll be watching and pulling for you. I can tell you, from years spent studying, raising, and interacting with bluegills, that growing monsters takes a great deal more than food. Embarking on a quest to grow monster bluegills can be both rewarding and frustrating. I am confident you will learn a lot, and come away with even more appreciation for this remarkable fish.</p>