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Post by MuzzleLoader on Mar 8, 2020 19:51:27 GMT -5
Hey Essup- My buddy stocked his pond with copper nose bluegill last year. 1-2 inches. He went fishing today and the bg were 3 to 4 inches. I thought they would be bigger than that by now? And he fed them last summer fish pellets. Bass were a good 8 to 10 inches. I know nothing about cnb. Have any info? He thinks it was the spawn from fish last year. I would have thought he would have caught at least one or two bigger than that.  |
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Post by esshup on Mar 8, 2020 22:21:32 GMT -5
CNBG will struggle up here. They are a Florida fish originally, and are well suited for ponds that don't freeze over for any length of time, just like Florida Largemouth or even F1's. Guys in Northern Texas report CNBG dying if the pond is frozen over for 3+ weeks. Like I said, they will struggle up here and they really prefer warmer water. I don't recommend stocking them any further North than North Texas. A client East of Dallas has them in his pond and they are doing great. He feeds about 30# per acre per month on average and his CNBG are pushing 2# at 3 years of age. All fish food isn't the same, and the fish food has to be of the size that they can readily swallow it. I did a feed test a few years back and switched to Optimal Fish food. I was feeding Purina Aquamax. I had less algae in my pond after switching, and the fish did grow faster. The feed test I did was comparing Tractor Supply Sportsmans Choice, Purina Aquamax 500 and Optimal Bluegill to be fair. Optimal makes an Optimal Bluegill Jr. food for smaller bluegills but I didn't use that. 3 fish cages, same size Hybrid Bluegills to start and same number of fish in each cage. Cages were the same size. Fish were fed 2x day, same amount of food by volume, like a person would hand feed in their pond. There was a feed ring in each cage to minimize the food floating out of the cage. The fish were approx. 1 1/2"-2" at the start of the test, the test went on for 90 days. Top fish is Tractor Supply Sportsmans Choice Middle fish is Purina Aquamax 500 Bottom fish is Optimal BLuegill A person I know in Nebraska did a feed test to determine fish flesh grown by "X" amount of food and it took 60# of Purina Aquamax to grow the same amount of fish flesh as 40# of Optimal Bluegill food. Optimal FIsh FoodThe bass is looking good. Tell your buddy to get a net and net the fish if he's going to release them. Dragging them up on the bank will remove a LOT of their slime coat, and that is the barrier against bacteria and fungus. |
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Post by MuzzleLoader on Mar 9, 2020 5:14:47 GMT -5
I really don’t know why he chose copper nose bluegill. You’re a great source of information thank you.
That is a huge variance of feeding them fish food and growth sizes.
I tried to get him to just put a mixture of bluegill bass and catfish at recommended levels but he Went a different route.
We did put fat head minnows in and let them set a good year for a forage base before he stocked it. Had substantial structure in it as well for the minnows to spawn and reproduce.
The pond was completely rebuilt and drained. I told him he’s got one shot to get it right from the beginning but he went against the recommended fish numbers and what to put in it.
We use Jones fish hatchery out of Cincinnati Ohio. I highly recommended him to use a hatchery fish and not just somebody who has fish. Somehow he got a conglomeration of whatever he put in from several different people.
why spend all that money up to that point of putting the fish in and then you blow it? Ugh.
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Post by esshup on Mar 9, 2020 22:29:47 GMT -5
There are fish suppliers that only sell fish, and don't care as long as they sell fish. Arkansas Pond Stockers (fish truck that hits the feed stores) sells the Coppernose.
I had a couple contact me from Michigan. They just stocked their pond and wanted to know what to do to get the fish to grow faster - they wanted large bass in their 2 acre pond. The closest fish supplier to them sold them 600 Largemouth Bass (LMB) for their pond, and only sold Hybrid Bluegills (HBG). No way will the HBG reproduce enough to keep all those LMB fed, no fish will. I told them that they needed to catch out at least 450 to 500 of those LMB asap or change their goals for the pond.
Max stocking rate on LMB is 125, maybe 150/acre and that is if you want a bass stunted pond but want large Bluegills. A single LMB needs to eat 10# of fish to gain 1# in weight. SO, even 100 LMB in a pond needs to consume 1,000# of fish from the pond. If it's 100 LMB in an acre pond, there is no way that there will be a sustaining forage population that can sustain that rate of predation and keep a viable reproduction population without an intensive feeding and aeration program. And at that, the LMB have to be harvested 25-30 pounds per year. I know some producers that grow a couple thousand pounds of bass per acre per year, but that is strictly on commercial feed and all the bass are harvested at 1 1/4# weight.
He can push the reset button on the pond if he needs to, it's called Rotenone. Different fish stocking for different pond goals. A stocking plan for someone that wants to grow large Bluegill will be completely different than one for growing large LMB, and completely different if someone wants their grand kids to have lots of fish to catch without a lot of management spent on the pond.
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Post by MuzzleLoader on Mar 10, 2020 6:29:42 GMT -5
I do know he drove to La Grange Kentucky to pick up the cnb. Try to save money and ends up biting him in the rear.
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