Thread: best from today

The two-pounder was caught on a whole live nightcrawler. Some of the other fish were caught on redworms; the two biggest apart from the two-pounder were caught on Crappie Sliders.

Purdy fishies for sure. I love em, those are awesome! Keep the pics coming.

How old are those fish and what is the growth rate

I have only been working with this particular pond since 2009, and the bluegill were badly overpopulated and averaged about 3" when I began working with it; the average lifespan of a bluegill is only six years, so it's unlikely that any of these fish were ones that were in the pond in 2009. I transferred sixty 6" coppernose from another pond on the same property in 2012; those fish were one year old at the time, so most likely the big coppernose pictured above are three to four years old. I say three to four because we've been catching a lot this year that look to be part coppernose and part northern-strain; there were northern-strain bluegill in the pond when I began working with it, and clearly the two strains have been interbreeding.

Do you age them from the otoliths