Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on May 06, 2021, 08:09:21 PM
-
I'm really bad at identifying juvenile fish. Anyone have any idea on these two? Both are about two inches long. I'm pretty sure the first one is some kind of sunfish, but unsure on the second. I understand sunfish can interbreed with themselves and bluegill, so maybe a hybrid?
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51163141939_4a82c25d5e_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51162598493_14c17b0c04_c.jpg)
-
The first one is a blue gill.
The second looks like a crappie but without his fins extended it is a guess at best.
That's my input.
bob
-
Might both be bluegill. Raise them up to be about 8"x8" and they are good eats.
-
Well, if they're bluegill, there's a bunch of them in my pond now, which is better than more carp. :laugh:
-
Definitely taste better then carp. And if the other one is a crappie they taste even better just need to make sure they don't take over.
-
Throw a few channel cat into the pond and let them eat the baby sunfish. But then you need large mouth bass to control the catfish. It's a deadly spiral trying to manage a pond with fish. OTOH, carp out of running water is pretty tasty, I used to catch them out of the Colorado River at Pichacho SRA in CA near Yuma. I used to feed them to naysayers just to show them it wasn't a trash fish.
bob
-
Bluegill and a small popper on a fly rod is hours of entertainment. One of my favorite eating fish fried in 50/50 cornmeal/flour.
-
Both are sunfish/bluegill. If you got a bunch that size and you didn't recently stock, your pond is over stocked and the sunfish are stunted. Throwing in some larger native game fish would make short work of them and hopefully get a population of them that are big enough to fillet and eat. It is almost impossible to over fish a bluegill pond, they spawn several times a year.
-
Throw a few channel cat into the pond and let them eat the baby sunfish. But then you need large mouth bass to control the catfish. It's a deadly spiral trying to manage a pond with fish. OTOH, carp out of running water is pretty tasty, I used to catch them out of the Colorado River at Pichacho SRA in CA near Yuma. I used to feed them to naysayers just to show them it wasn't a trash fish.
bob
Carp are not game fish in Texas. There are some lakes down here where they beg bow fishers to do tournaments to take out as many as they can.
-
Addressing several replies:
The pond was referred to as a "bass and bluegill pond" when I bought the place, though I saw neither (I don't think). The carp made themselves known, and there are other fish, that I have seen make some nice jumps to surface feed, but have not caught or identified them.
There are giant catfish in the creek next to the pond. I don't know if they are in the pond, but there ARE catfish. Comically, when I am flood irrigating my pastures, I will occasionally see a small catfish that made it through the alfalfa valves flopping around in the pasture, and I will grab it and toss it in the pond. I also see lots of crawdaddys that way. Last Winter, I did see about a 14" dead catfish wash up on shore, so I must have at least a few good size catfish there.
I bought 100+ bass fry a couple of years ago to try and stock the pond. I know bass are slow growers, but I think I lost most of the fry to the dang herons. Fish transport permits are easy to get from the DFG here, so at some point when I have time, I might go to one of the local public ponds and catch some more mature bass and release them in the pond.
I didn't find the above fish directly in the pond. I have a diversion pipe from my ag pump that I use to top off the pond through the season, and the last couple of times I did it, there were a bunch of the above fish flopping around near the pipe after I turned the water off, so they all came from the creek. I assume if there were a bunch near the pipe, a bunch more made it in the pond. I guess we'll see if it's too many and they don't get big, or if bigger fish in the pond bring their numbers down.
On the carp eating, we seem to be one of the few countries where carp are considered trash fish. In Germany, carp are served in restaurants. I had some there many years ago when my Uncle took me to a game restaurant and ordered me one of the "better" fish. I recall that I was shocked when I learned what it was, but I also recall it didn't taste bad. It was certainly much better than a yucky trout I remember eating at Lago Garda in Italy at the time. I would consider eating my carp here, but they seem to be such a hassle to prep with the rough scales and bones, and I'm lazy. I figure since the damn things are like swimming cockroaches that survive anything, they will make a good food supply when the zombie apocalypse hits. :laugh:
-
You stocked Bass two years ago in a pond with stunted Bluegill?
I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with some nice size Bass in your pond.
-
You stocked Bass two years ago in a pond with stunted Bluegill?
I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with some nice size Bass in your pond.
Well, I don't know if there were any bluegill in the pond back when I stocked the bass. Being a farm pond, the water isn't the clearest, else I would have put a camera down to see what I could see. I guess I could always throw a stick of dynamite in and see what comes up. =D
-
I have a phone if you want to call the fish and ask.
-
I have a phone if you want to call the fish and ask.
That's why he started this thread, he didn't know what to call the fish.
-
Bobber and nightcrawler will catch bluegill.
-
Bobber and nightcrawler will catch bluegill.
A little story.
When my youngest daughter was about 6 or 7 we would do (Her and I) weekend or longer trips to the Colorado River near Yuma. I went for catfish so it was a night thing for me. She always fell asleep early so she was up early. She would spend her time waiting for me to wake up by catching Bluegill. We had Bluegill fillets with our eggs for breakfast every day. She was all excited one day and was telling me about this "huge" bluegill she caught and when I asked where it was she said she lost it unhooking it and it went back in the water. I asked if she learned anything and in her young wisdom told me "Don't unhook a fish over the water"! good advice for anyone. :)
bob