Hey Smithaven and anyone else interested, this thread is in response to Smithaven's question on why bluegill get so much bigger in some areas. The short answer would be, it does happen only slightly less infrequently than being hit by a comet, that bluegill just naturally get monstrous on their own, without outside intervention; but it's much more common, just as it is with monstrous largemouth, that you see the biggest ones come from intensively-managed waters where all of the conditions are being maximized for that one species. In the case of the ponds I guide on, all but one of them had stunted bluegill populations when I began working with them in 2009. It took a lot of work and expense over two to three years, depending on the pond, just to get the population dynamics turned around to where the bluegill could grow fast, and some of the things I did were ridiculed at the time by other pond managers - who now recommend those same methods to pond owners. For example, my two best ponds are an acre or less each, and both ponds have two tiger muskie that were 12" when stocked and are now slightly larger than that:

[img:center]muskie-March-31 by tnpondmanager, on Flickr[/img]

My best pond, in addition to the two tiger muskie, also had 200 largemouth among four different stockings added to it. The second-best pond had forty largemouth fingerlings stocked, followed three months later by two tiger muskie, followed a month after that by twenty-two adult largemouth, followed six months after that by ten 6-8" hybrid stripers and five blue catfish that were between five and ten pounds apiece when they were stocked. The bluegill average 9" in that pond now and my first party to fish it this past spring caught six that were 10" or better in one morning, including one that went right at 11".

Most pond managers that are good at growing big bass have no concept of what it takes to grow truly monstrous bluegill, because they don't take bluegill seriously and think it's just a matter of throwing out a little more food. (It's not.)

I need to plan a trip up there very soon! As always you have some super looking ponds and fish.

That sounds good, Banker! I'd love to get you on these ponds and see what you could hook into. Get yourself up here!

Good information. Thanks for sharing.

Plus #1. Maybe I can talk some of my friends on making a road trip up there and fish your ponds. That would be one heck of a trip!

Sounds good, LakerOne! It's an experience you won't soon forget!