GIANT BLUEGILLS

Help Your Farm Pond Produce Better

EDITOR'S NOTE: Barry Smith of Montgomery, Alabama, a longtime fisheries biologist, co-owns American Sport Fish in Pike Road, Alabama, one of the largest private hatcheries in the Southeast, with his partner Don Keller. Smith and Keller have developed several breeds of fish that landowners enjoy stocking in their ponds. This week we'll talk with Smith about the giant bluegills American Sport Fish stocks.

Question: I've heard that you shouldn't stock catfish in your pond with bluegill and bass if you want to grow trophy bluegills? Is this true, and if yes, why?
Answer: That is true in two situations. If you want to grow trophy bluegills or trophy bass, I recommend not putting catfish in your pond. Catfish will compete with both your bluegill and your bass for food. Even if you stock only 100 catfish per acre, and you don't harvest these fish out -- let's say you only harvest half of the stock per acre per year and then only have 50 catfish in your pond per acre per year and those catfish grow for four or five years and then weigh 5- to 8-pounds each -- you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that you have hundreds of pounds of catfish in your pond that are eating all the little fish that the bluegills and the bass would eat, if they had the chance.

Question: So we need to keep this pond free of catfish, right?
Answer: If you want to manage for trophy fishing, that's my suggestion. If you just want an all-around fishing pond and you aren't interested in trophy bass or trophy bluegills, that's fine.

Question: What about putting in weeds or brush in your pond? Is it necessary or recommended?
Answer: Brush is good for ponds because it concentrates some of your fish and will provide an attachment surface for aquatic insects which bluegills eat. So, all of those types of things are beneficial. I don't necessarily recommend stocking weeds in your pond, although there are some types of plants which look good aesthetically and do provide some cover and if maintained properly can be very functional.

Question: Another bluegill species that people have really gotten excited about is the hand-painted bluegill. What is this species, and what are your thoughts about hand-painted bluegills?
Answer: The hand-painted bluegill, a very pretty fish, is a different subspecies that's found in isolated places in Florida. We actually spawned these fish 15-16 years ago. We liked them, but we didn't have a market for them. We haven't mass-produced them because we didn't have the market for them; we just couldn't sell them. But the hand-painted bluegill is an excellent fish with a very good growth rate. I haven't seen any scientific studies on the comparison of their birth rates compared to the coppernose, but I assume it's very similar.

Question: So you would assume that they grow as fast as the common bluegill?
Answer: That's quite likely. For someone concerned with aesthetics, the hand-painted bluegill would be a good choice since they are so pretty. The only problem is that these fish are not available commercially. There's not any hatcheries that raise these fish, so if you want some, they're not available on the common market.

To learn more about American Sport Fish, write P.O. Box 20050, Montgomery, AL 36120, or call (334) 281-7703.

TOMORROW: FACTS ABOUT COPPERNOSE BLUEGILLS