I am 10 days shy of being 62 years old, & the smallish but mighty pond bluegill has been the object of my affection (and pursuit!) for 55 of those years, so I believe I have acquired some knowledge of their growth in ponds. I'll share my thoughts here...I may be dead wrong, but my results say the following has SOME merit. If a pond has stunted gills, say vast numbers up to 5" or 6", take literally as many as you can to fillet in the first year or 2...release ALL 8" or over. For example, a friend & I fished just such a pond about 1 acre in size. By loose count, we took OUT almost 1,500 gills the first year. The next year, we were seeing a good number of 7" fish. The pond owner passed away & we never were able to fish there again, but from other pond experience, I would have done the same pattern year 2, but would be keeping fewer fish each subsequent year due to larger average size. My favorite pond that we call The Factory is a pond I began fishing 9 years ago. At that time, we got mostly 6" & 7" fish with an occasional 8 incher. It had a decent base, so not too many were kept, but I used the same formula...release all over 8". Now any gills I KEEP (infrequently) from that pond are 8" & under & the AVERAGE size is 9" & over, which are ALWAYS safely released. Jeremy Kurtz can back me up on this statement. I do think I have made one mistake & that is the C & R of ALL bass, & their average size is NOT what it once was. Many years ago, I read an article that to keep a bass/gill pond in balance, you need to harvest 7 pounds of gills to every pound of bass. I believe in that ratio & I will talk to the pond owner & make an effort to keep a FEW bass, UNDER 15" this year & in future years. That also means that I will need to target bass more often...something I seldom do. Obviously I will watch results closely. I may have left some points out...certainly not purposely, but if I have, I'm sure I'll be reminded. BTW, I believe STRONGLY in fishing barbless hooks. Mikey
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