What is the best way to maximize bream size?

[Mike Cage]

My 10 acre pond is two years old. We stocked this pond with 7,000 Coppernose bream and 3,000 shellcrackers.We also put in 100 Tiger bass to the acre.As soon as the water warms each year I have two feeders that go off 4 times daily.The feed that I have been using is Purina game fish chow.The bream are responding well with several caught at 1lb.

Questions I have:
1) Is there another feed that would grow bigger bream?

I have let numerous friends keep 40 or 50 bream/trip over the summer.I feel that each time we harvest bream for the table that we are keeping the biggest ones at the time and thus hurting our chances for maximum growth.

2) Should I release all bream this summer and just let them grow to try and get a large number of bream to hit the 1.5lb.mark?

Thanks for your help!

[Mike Cage]

Jim, thanks for the sound advice.
Releasing the larger gills will be my plan this summer.

[Jim Gronaw]

Hey Mike...if you want some really king kong sized gills, you might want to limit the harvest of your biggest fish, take a few, eat smaller, more numerous gills and release the majority of those big guys and see what happens in a couple of years...10 acres is a pretty good sized pond, so you'll have alot of options in the future. Good Luck!

[Mike Cage]

Thanks Nate I appreciate the information and your assistance.

[Nate Herman]

Since your pond is 10 acres and also......a newly stocked pond..........you can decide what you want it to be managed for!

[Nate Herman]

As far as releasing fish, that would depend on what you want to manage for. Since your pond is 10 acres and also, you can decide what you want it to be!The fish you would be catching this year will all be your stocked fish. If you want to grow 1.5 lb bluegill, I would suggest determining your average size of your bluegill and harvesting all of the bluegill that you catch below that average size. That will get rid of the slower growing bluegill from your original stocking.

This year your BG will get off a really good spawn and your bass should keep all the yoy in check for a couple years before you will have to start thinning down all of the new classes of bluegill!

[Nate Herman]

Mike, switch over to Aquamax 600 grower. That has a much higher protein than gamefish chow, and your bluegill will grow bigger because of it. Any dealer that sells gamefish chow can order aquamax for you.