Do you love big bluegill?

bull march 11

I stopped today by a one-acre pond I manage and got to see the owner's son catch this dude with a custom rod I had made recently for him.

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Comment by Walt Foreman on March 17, 2012 at 8:36am: I just hope this one isn't the only big one left in the pond. This particular pond had a high density of big bluegill last year - I had planned on taking out a bunch of fish 8" and under in the next month - as recently as a couple months ago, even in the middle of winter, if we had a couple days in the '50's, the fish would feed better in this pond than any of the four other ponds on the property that I'm managing. And now with the warmer weather, the fish are jumping out of the water when I set the feeders off on the other ponds - but in this pond only a handful of fish come up. So it appears that either an otter or a poacher has cleaned out much of the pond. I've found a couple fish skeletons on the bank, and saw another dead, mostly-eaten fish in the water yesterday while walking the pond bank, but I haven't found any scat, with scales or otherwise, and that's supposed to be a key sign of otters...There was a day last year when I found a fishing float on the mini-dock I have the feeder mounted on, and the owner told me it wasn't his, so it may have been poachers. If so, woe be to whoever it was if I ever catch him back there.

Comment by Bruce Condello on March 17, 2012 at 7:09am: There has always been strong evidence that the eyes, and fins of fish grow at more of a "set rate" than the body itself. When fish are hyper-growers like this one, you have the mass of a large, mature fish, but the tail of a juvenile fish.

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on March 17, 2012 at 7:02am: I didnt notice the scale of the tail at first - out of proportion for sure.

It suggests a fish that doesn't have to do much but float around and eat!

Comment by Walt Foreman on March 12, 2012 at 2:32pm: I did notice this guy had a small tail - almost reminiscent of the famed Condello 'gills!

Comment by Tony Livingston on March 12, 2012 at 9:16am: I just don't know, Leo. I'm hoping someone on here knows the answer, and can clue me in.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on March 12, 2012 at 8:55am: Is there a reason why the tail would split? Due to size vs water displacement capability for the split tail, or relative effects of size and issues of fanning their beds?

Comment by Tony Livingston on March 12, 2012 at 7:20am: I've noticed that a lot of big Bluegills seem to develop a split tail, I can't tell on this fish in particular, but I've seen a lot of others with it.

Comment by Bruce Condello on March 12, 2012 at 7:16am: You can really see the ratio skew that you get on fast growing fish. Tail size is relatively small on high-end fish like this.

Comment by Walt Foreman on March 11, 2012 at 10:06pm: Amen, Leo! It was fun watching him catch the fish - and I did also receive a beer from their stash.