a few from today

[tnpondmanager]

I guided a husband and wife from Iowa this morning. The biggest was an 11" coppernose that weighed 22 ounces - here are a few photos:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7302/8941270786_2a163d129b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8941270786/) coppernose-3-june-3-2013 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8941270786/) by tnpondmanager (http://www.flickr.com/people/87205953@N05/), on Flickr

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/8941276496_a6c2d1119d.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8941276496/) northern-strain-june-3-2013 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8941276496/) by tnpondmanager (http://www.flickr.com/people/87205953@N05/), on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7412/8940653523_53d90f678c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8940653523/) coppernose-4-june-3-2013 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8940653523/) by tnpondmanager (http://www.flickr.com/people/87205953@N05/), on Flickr

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3682/8941278982_52bc62a2ac.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8941278982/) northern-strain-2-june-3-20 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8941278982/) by tnpondmanager (http://www.flickr.com/people/87205953@N05/), on Flickr

[tnpondmanager]

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2883/8940666403_6c30f29654.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8940666403/) coppernose-5-june-3-2013 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87205953@N05/8940666403/) by tnpondmanager (http://www.flickr.com/people/87205953@N05/), on Flickr

[Travis C.]

Those are just some incredible gills.

[jad2t]

I'd like to get ahold of one of those on 2lb test with a trout magnet!

[tnpondmanager]

Much thanks, Travis! Jad2t, I have several days open in June and July so just let me know if you'd like to book a trip.

[tsuggs]

Wow!

[MNfisher]

Giants!!

[Alphahawk]

Big fish...TK will have some of them not too far down the road.



Regards

[tnpondmanager]

TK does indeed have some of the same stock of coppernose that all of these came from! TK, did you get the bass in there? If so, and with the right food, it's just a matter of time.

[MNfisher]

TK does indeed have some of the same stock of coppernose that all of these came from! TK, did you get the bass in there? If so, and with the right food, it's just a matter of time.

Curious.....why do you need bass to get the big gills?? To keep from overpopulating the pond with small fish?

[Alphahawk]

Curious.....why do you need bass to get the big gills?? To keep from overpopulating the pond with small fish?

Walt will answer I am sure but you are correct. As a teenager I literally fished almost every pond...lake....in Sumner county. They either had great bass fishing....small Gills....or big Gills and stunted bass. Pond management requires some time and effort. We had two small lakes on my moms farm. One had giant bass and stunted Gills. The other one had mediocre bass and huge Gills. My dentist has a 9 acre lake chock full of 9 pound bass.......but the Gills in there are stunted.....no management. But he doesn't want big Gills so I guess it works for him.



Regards

[chaseasl]

wow, those are incredible

[MNfisher]

My dentist has a 9 acre lake chock full of 9 pound bass.......but the Gills in there are stunted.....no management. But he doesn't want big Gills so I guess it works for him.



Regards

I would take a pond full of 9 lb bass! Thanks for the reply!

[tnpondmanager]

MNFisher, Alpha is right on - you need them to keep the small bluegill thinned out. The single biggest key to growing giant bluegill, even more important than supplemental feeding, is a high density of predators. The pond that all of the fish today came from is under an acre, and I've stocked over 200 largemouth in it in the four years I've been working with it. It also has two tiger muskie that were stocked at 12" each in December 2009. I'm guessing they're slightly larger than 12" now.

[MNfisher]

It also has two tiger muskie that were stocked at 12" each in December 2009. I'm guessing they're slightly larger than 12" now.

Cool, thanks! Do you ever see the Muskie? Also when fishing the gills, I assume you catch several small bass?

[tnpondmanager]

I have not seen the muskie, although someone else may have hooked one a year or two ago as he said his line just parted with no resistance as soon as he set the hook on a fish.

We do catch a lot of small bass while fishing for bluegill - we probably caught as many or more bass today than we did bluegill. Some of the bass are feed-trained, so those get pretty good-sized in spite of their high density - the biggest today was around three pounds but a month ago the guys from Illinois caught a four-pounder, and I've seen a couple that would go six or better detonating on pellets when the feeder goes off.

[MNfisher]

Interesting. Thank you for the answers!

[fishbait61832]

Wow......