Stunted bluegills?

You tell me if this sounds like stunted bluegill.

There are two 100 acre lakes. Lake A consists of bass, bluegill, crappie, sunfish, catfish, carp, wipers, walleye, and gar. While Lake B consists of bass, bluegill, crappie, and catfish. Lake A you can catch roughly 30 bluegill within an hour. While, on the same day, Lake B you will catch 4 or 5 within an hour using the same rig. The difference will be that 30 bluegill at Lake A are ranging from 3 - 6" while the bluegill from Lake B will be 8 - 10".

Now these are not the same spots on either lake. You can go to several different spots on either lake and catch the same quanity and same size in about half a dozen spots on these two lakes. Does this sound like Lake A has a stunted bluegill problem?

Lake A would not have a stunted blue gill problem if I lived close to it and had access to fish it when I wanted............I would B eating alot of blue gill...........................:biggrin

What are wipers?

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...4_05/wiper.jpg White bass or striped bass. This is the usually size of wipers in western nebraska. I've never seen wipers out here in eastern nebraska of that size. Biggest wiper i caught out of the lake i am referring to was 5 - 6 " max. Wipers have been present in that water for a good 15 - 20 years.

Wipers are hybrid striped bass.

:popcornA good day for learnin' somethin' new ... again. rotfl
Thanks for the info.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by retiredrr

:popcorna good day for learnin' somethin' new ... Again. Rotfl
thanks for the info.

---

x2

They may not be stunted, just a better pond that has alot of reproducing fish. My fathers pond is the same way, alot of small. But, there ate also alot of mature fish that are not so easy to catch. Try fishing deeper and off the bottom. This is how we do it in my fathers pond and you described your pond almost exactly like his except we have no hybrids or gar. Lake B may have more mature predator fish that are putting a hurting on the bluegill population explaining the low number of fish caught but bigger in quality. The bluegill fry may get sucked up before they can mature explaining the large ones are all you catch. You shlod be able to catch more than 4-5 per hour in any decent pond if you spend time on it and know it. I would prefer to fish in lake A, there has to be mature fish if there are small ones and with all the gar, bass, hybrids, and crappie i don't think you have a overpopulation problem. Just my 2 cent worth, i am not a biologist, i just stayed in a holiday in express recently though, lol.

Hmmm i thought a wiper was a cross between a stripped bass and a white bass.And they were called wipers as a "slang term" by those fishing for striped bass and wanting to catch a larger fish(striped bass).I also didnt think a wiper got near as big as a striped bass.......My Bad :dono

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BULLFROG-1

Hmmm i thought a wiper was a cross between a stripped bass and a white bass.And they were called wipers as a "slang term" by those fishing for striped bass and wanting to catch a larger fish(striped bass).I also didnt think a wiper got near as big as a striped bass.......My Bad :dono

---

Yes, when fish are "crossed" thats what makes a hybrid.

Doesn't sound stunted to me either, sounds more like too much predation.

Adolescent bluegills will sex out earlier when there are no big bluegills to compare themselves to. They also pretty much quit growing once they sex out, too. When the bulls are present the adolescents keep growing until they compare to the largest fish and so sex out later; so no matter how you cut it bull gills require enough life expectancy to grow out to the larger sizes. Whether from human harvest or too much natural predation, if they can't live long enough there will never be enough big bluegills to measure against nor the life expectancy necessary to grow that big.

(It can take 8-10 years in the north country to grow a 1 pound bluegill, less of course in milder areas like Nebraska.)

I would say at least the wipers are too much for the 100 acres, if you also want big bluegills. Lots of smaller bluegills would be a very good forage source for healthy wipers though. The wipers being sterile hybrids can be controlled simply by stocking levels. FWIW when predation and harvest are curtailed you will find bluegills moving up in size toward what Lake B shows with a different predation pattern, and that is more likely to be a more natural size structure for bluegills that get enough life expectancy.

Wipers are a sterile hybrid between white bass and striped bass that has to be done at the hatchery. They outgrow the whites but do not have the size potential of the stripers. They are virtually impossible in nature; so all of them are stocked. For that matter most striped bass do not spawn in land locked fresh water either and most of those are stocked, too. Wipers (W hite Bass crossed with str IPERS) are often preferred if there is any indication that true stripers might be too much of a predator for particular waters. 100 acres is definitely too small for true stripers. IMO it is also probably too small for wipers.

Sounds to me like Lake B has a more balanced population than Lake A ... with Lake A having too many high end predators.

... cp :cool:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Southern Young Gun

They may not be stunted, just a better pond that has alot of reproducing fish. My fathers pond is the same way, alot of small. But, there ate also alot of mature fish that are not so easy to catch. Try fishing deeper and off the bottom. This is how we do it in my fathers pond and you described your pond almost exactly like his except we have no hybrids or gar. Lake B may have more mature predator fish that are putting a hurting on the bluegill population explaining the low number of fish caught but bigger in quality. The bluegill fry may get sucked up before they can mature explaining the large ones are all you catch. You shlod be able to catch more than 4-5 per hour in any decent pond if you spend time on it and know it. I would prefer to fish in lake A, there has to be mature fish if there are small ones and with all the gar, bass, hybrids, and crappie i don't think you have a overpopulation problem. Just my 2 cent worth, i am not a biologist, i just stayed in a holiday in express recently though, lol.

---

Never really thought about it like that. There are more predators in Lake A than there are in Lake B. Could explain why the bass limit in Lake A is only 15" bag limit 4 vs the bass limit in Lake B is 21" bag limit 1. Obviously with a healthy stock of panfish in Lake A the bass would be benefiting quite nicely, therefore the smaller size allowance and higher bag limit vs Lake B.

But it doesn't explain the panfish regs, Lake A has no limit to the size of panfish, but a bag limit of 30. While Lake B has no size and no bag limit for panfish (reg was issued 2 years ago, ends later this year).

FYI, Lake A striped bass and wipers reg is 18" and bag limit of 1. But like i said, i have never seen anything over 8", so they may be trying to regrow the numbers and size of the wipers out there.

It seems to me, when the size limit is low or non-existent and the bag limit is high or unlimited. Management is trying to cut down on the species numbers by pretty much declaring open season. But when the size and bag limits are vice versa, it seems they want to allow the species to grow more and bring up their numbers.