bream or bluegill

Bee Happy · July 05, 2010, 01:32:08 PM

Same fish - everyone calls them bream down here. I built a small pond last year, someone gave me a pool liner for a 10000 gallon pool. I don't have aeration, I plan to put a small windmill up to pump water in to top it up and switch to recirculate once the pond is near full. (we had about a foot evaporate out since the second half of spring was bone dry.) I stocked it (since it's such a small pond) with about 9 bream, I figured for the size it will support only about 25-30 bluegill, I'm fine with that, since a half-acre pond would have been really difficult to build. I got the stock from a local lake with a bait trap and none of the fish were bigger than about 2-1/2" long, I also caught about 20 minnows which have done really really well - we're up to a couple hundred minnows now, and the pond has attracted frogs and there's some green stuff growing in there. (I figured on a small starting population and it would grow into its own ecology without my 'nurturing')
Here's my stupid question: The fish (the bream) from last year have grown considerably, but I've lost track of how many there are. I see a few bluegills that are at about 2-1/2" now, is it possible that they are the smallest ones from last year and their growth was stunted? - Or am I better off assuming they had some offspring and only a few survived to this size? I know that to someone who knows fish pretty well this might sound just dumb, but I've truthfully never watched a 'wild' pond this closely, so I couldnt be sure what to expect. (I DID expect them to breed eventually, but I dont know what level of maturity they need to reach.)
My google searches were obliterated with anything but a good life-cycle timeline.

fish_stix · July 06, 2010, 12:02:25 AM

Bream/bluegill will definitely stunt if not thinned out regularly. I would get a pond specialist out to look at it and make recommendations. As far as thinning out the population I recommend a 2 or 3 weight flyrod with a rubber spider or black gnat fly. Then dip in egg wash and crushed corn flakes and deep fry briefly. Tends to keep the population under control.

harvey · July 06, 2010, 12:08:55 AM

Hey Fish Styx, wouldn't that rubber spider melt when you deep fry it? Bluegill fried in a cast iron skillet with a little butter and pepper!! Just don't get much better than that!

Bee Happy · July 06, 2010, 12:22:15 AM

fish stix, I was figuring on dough balls, they look like a pirannha attack when a slice of bread hits the water.

Keith13 · July 06, 2010, 03:15:27 AM

Hey i'm no icthyologist (sorry I learened that word awhile back and never had a chance to use it till just now ;)) bluegill or bream heck so even cal them perch around here but iI use bream. They will stunt themselves in a small pond with out thinning you end up with thousands of 4 inch fish. with a small pond you run the risk of thinning them too much or over population its a fine line. But, I agree one of the best fish fried. Sac a Lait ( crappie for all you non-Louisiana folks) are about the only thing better fried Just my .02

Keith

harvey · July 06, 2010, 12:04:02 PM

Keith 13, I dug a pond in our backyard, It is about 3 acreas and about 20 feet deep. We now have 15 inch Sac A Lait in there, (crappies), Large mouth bass, perch some up to 12 inches, catfish, pike,and blue gill. My wife does not like fish but she loves to fish. We just catch and release all the time. Last weeks she caught a 40 inch pike. Couple days ago she hauled out a 28 inch pike! I bought her a real nice ultra light rod and real this last christmas. I am gone a lot specially in the evenings and it just gives her something to do. We let others come and keep what they catch just to keep the pond thinned out, course I didn't know we had a monster such as a 40 inch pike in there helping us either!

AllenF · July 06, 2010, 12:10:45 PM

I always thought that bluegill is a type of bream, like redbreast and shellcracker down here are also bream. And yes, with too many fish in the pond, they will not get big, all small ones. We drained out my dad's pond and it was full of 3" shellcracker, not a single big one left. They out grew the food source for them, but the catfish were big.

Bee Happy · July 06, 2010, 12:50:38 PM

I should add that when I said grown I meant in size, some of them look hand size or bigger, I'm sure they're smaller because they look larger in the water, I just don't know how to count them since the water is a little bit tea colored from the oak leaves. Just wondering how I can tell if they've grown in number and the small ones are new fish.

Mason · July 06, 2010, 03:48:48 PM

I have never owned my own pond but used to manage the neighbors when I was younger. Very rewarding and the joke in the neighborhood was that I knew every fish by name in that pond.

A fun thing to do is to tag your fish. Use one of those retail tagging guns that shoots in the little piece of plastic with the "T" on the end under the dorsal fin. You can use color coded tags and a notebook to keep track of what species was tagged and when. Make careful notes about size and time of year etc.

Your pond seems to be lacking in predators. A few big bass would actually help you out. 500 1-3 inch bream per acre would work with limited predators. If you have existing predators go with fewer larger bream.

It is likely that your fish are stunted due to too much algae and not enough predators. A body of water can only sustain a certain amount of fish. It can be 500 1 lb fish or 1 500lb fish but only so much fish can live in a certain amount of water.

Drop a 3-4lb female largemouth bass and a few males in there and I think it will solve most of your problems if you have any at all.

wd · July 06, 2010, 04:06:24 PM

if you decide to thin them out and have a garden, they do make a decent fertilizer in part, buried.

AllenF · July 06, 2010, 06:11:59 PM

Small fish taste just as good as the big ones. Just takes more for the stew pot.

iddee · July 06, 2010, 06:36:21 PM

The best way to catch them is on a cane pole, small hook and cork, in the hands of a 6 year old.

Most fun you will ever have.

doak · July 08, 2010, 10:48:58 PM

There are several species of bream, (red ear sunfish, red breast, blue gill, flier) all different.
Blue gill will stunt quicker than "red ear", which is also known as shell cracker. These two are the larger of the group. Red breast and fliers seldom get over a pound. blue gill and red ear/shell crackers will reach 3 + pounds. :)doak

JP · July 09, 2010, 10:18:23 AM

PM Bud, he raises fish, he'll be able to answer all your pond/fish questions.

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?action=profile;u=3842
"
BTW around here we call perch "Brim" that would likely be green sunfish, "Bluegill" are the ones that get the reddish heads with the blue ear flaps.

Shell crackers or Lake runners (what we call 'em) are the best eating of the lot, right below Sac a lait.

...JP

Mason · July 09, 2010, 11:15:50 AM

QuoteBTW around here we call perch "Brim"

Down there you call Largemouth Bass "Green Trout".

JP · July 10, 2010, 07:34:43 AM

Quote from: Mason on July 09, 2010, 11:15:50 AM
QuoteBTW around here we call perch "Brim"

Down there you call Largemouth Bass "Green Trout".

Yep, that's true!

...JP

irerob · August 08, 2010, 08:42:28 PM

Quote from: iddee on July 06, 2010, 06:36:21 PM
The best way to catch them is on a cane pole, small hook and cork, in the hands of a 6 year old.

Most fun you will ever have.

I second that. :)

Bee Happy · August 09, 2010, 04:24:00 AM

I remember fishing up a green perch with a slightly orange throat, someone told me it was called a pumpkin seed.
Anyway, I finally got my answer, the fish are breeding, I saw four perch that were definitely smaller than the ones I introduced last year. I expect this fall I'll have a fish fry to get the population down.