BLACK BASS CULTURE 199 



BLUEGILL SUNFISH 



Everything considered, the bluegill {Lepomis incisor) is probably 

 the most desirable of the sunfishes for pond culture. Two or throe 

 other species have been propagated in the Southern States with 

 considerable success but for the country at large there is probably 

 no sunfish which possesses as many desirable qualities as the l)liie- 

 gill. It is especially suited to small ponds since it is an omnivorous 

 feeder and will succeed under conditions which would result in fail- 

 ure with bass or crappie. 



Although much less attention has been paid to this species in the 

 Fairport experiments than to bass, a few have been propagated each 

 year with considerable success. For the most part they have been 

 reared in ponds which are too small to be suitable for bass. 



The largest pond devoted to the propagation of bluegill alone is 

 D 1 having an area of 0.224 of an acre. In the spring of 1926 this 

 pond was stocked with 212 adults and 500 yearlings — a total of 712 

 fish which is at the rate of approximately 3,180 per acre. At this 

 time it was not realized that the yearlings would spawn as was 

 later found to be the case. In the following September, 25,624 No. 1 

 fingerlings ^ were removed from the pond which was at the rate of 

 approximately 114,000 to the acre. Including the increase in weight 

 of the yearlings and older fish the total production of fish flesh 

 in this pond during the summer was 188 pounds per acre. This 

 pond was not fertilized. 



During the same summer, pond F 1, with an area of 0.073 of an acre 

 was stocked with 300 select yearling bluegills. This was at the 

 rate of about 4,000 per acre. This pond was fertilized with 45 

 pounds of bone meal and sheep manure and produced 12,000 No. 1 

 fingerlings (about 144,000 per acre). The actual production of fish 

 flesh was at the rate of 272 pounds to the acre. This figure is, no 

 doubt, more indicative of the possibilities in the production of blue- 

 gills than are the results in D 1. 



In the following year (1927) D 6 (area 0.087 acre) was stocked 

 with 125 select 2-year-old blugegills. This stocking was at the rate 

 of 1,436 fish per acre. This pond was drained on October 19, the 

 production of fingerlings being at the rate of approximately 200,000 

 per acre. While this is a satisfactory yield as far as numbers are 

 concerned the fish were smaller than usual, and were evidently too 

 numerous for the amount of food produced in the pond which was 

 not fertilized. 



Since it was very evident that in previous years the bluegill ponds 

 had been heavily overstocked with brood fish it was decided to make 

 a radical reduction in the stocking intensity. Accordingly, on April 

 24, 1929, pond D 1 was stocked with 30 adults (130 per acre). For 

 some unknown reason there was a high mortality among these fish, 22 

 dying within a few weeks. These were replaced by 17 inferior fish. 

 Under the circumstances the number of fish which actually spawned 

 in the pond is unknown but it must have been much less than in pre- 

 vious years. Nevertheless, when the pond was drained on October 

 18, 66,792 fingerling bluegills were removed. This production was 



3 See Report U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1907, Document 630, p. 7, for standard 

 usage in ttie classification of young flsh according to size. 



