What It Takes to Grow Trophy Bluegill in Ponds

[Walt Foreman]

Seven years ago, in May 2009, I started managing a handful of ponds just north of my hometown on my own dime, with the goal of creating a trophy bluegill guide service.  There are five ponds on the property that I worked with: 1.1 acre, 1 acre, .9 acre, .5 acre, and .25 acre, a total of 3.75 acres of water.  When I started with that property, all but one of the ponds was choked with watermeal or duckweed or both; one pond had no fish left due to the duckweed, another had only stunted black crappie left, and the remaining three had morbidly stunted bluegill that averaged 3" in the best pond, and 2" in the worst one.  None of those ponds had any water source other than run-off.

I'm about to begin working with a new property for my guide service, and there are three main ponds on it: 3.5, 3.4, and 2.8 acres.  A high-volume spring flows into the center pond and the owner has piping installed to route the spring water constantly through all three ponds year-round.  All three ponds have a good amount of deep water and great water quality.  Here are the electrofishing results from the smallest pond:

Here are the results from electrofishing the 3.4 and the 3.5 acre ponds:

[Leo Nguyen]

So far, evident show us the proper management techniques are key in increasing the gills' sizes. This is quite common in our waters infested with gills and crappies, with minimal predation. I got the luxury in fishing at well managed waterbodies for some splendid managed fishes.  The results are night and day. Always be adamant about your field experiences and wisdom, and never back down. 

[Walt Foreman]

Sounds good, Jeffrey!  

Carl, I'm really excited about this new property.  I've been blessed to work on a lot of ponds and lakes in several states the past few years, particularly lately, but most of my clients are all about growing big bass, and of course even most of the ones that are after big bluegill don't get obsessive/insane about every detail like I do on a pond I'm footing the bill for.  So I'm pretty excited to see what I can make with this new palette.

[carl hendrix]

WALT;; I KNOW YOU HAVE  WORKED LONG AND HARD TO GET A REALLY GOOD TROPHY BLUE GILL POND;; WISHING YOU THE VERY BEST OF LUCK BUDDY !     YOU HAVE A TERRIFIC AMOUNT  OF  KNOWLEDGE  ON RAISING BIG BLUE GILL  KEEP AT IT BUDDY !!

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

Interesting Walt.......I still owe you an answer on the grass shrimp so don't give up on me.........I thought it would be easier to get a response from the field biologists.........I'll find out for sure!

[Walt Foreman]

I meant to type this into the initial blog post and forgot: the owner has already begun draining Pond #1 on my suggestion and the fish community in it will soon be introduced to rotenone.