winter feeding - 01/26/04 08:13 PM
For those that don't know my pond is 3.5 acres in middle Georgia. The pond is three years old.
I feed the fish during the warm weather with Purina or a floating catfish feed. Most years I stop feeding about mid November. This year being lazy I left my Kenco straight shooter running during December. When I went to get the feeder(December 7)
it still had a little feed in it so I tossed some in the pond. Much to my surpise the fish were still feeding. So I filled the feeder up and left it.
I have checked it most weekend since and the bream and hybrid stripers are still feeding. We have not had real cold weather so far until last week, lows in the 20's and highs in the 30's/40's. When I went to my farm saturday it was 35 degrees and I was sure the feeding would be over. Nope!
Here are my observations
-catfish will not eat when it is cold, hybrid bream and hybrid stripers will
-they will eat less but they are as active feeding as in warm weather.
-Must feed in one spot, during the summer I can put feed anywhere in the pond and the fish will find it. I tried this last saturday and they would only eat around the feeder.
-On warm winter days in past years I put some feed in and got no activity. If you are going to winter feed you must continue your summer feeding with no break.
What benefit do I hope to get from my winter feeding? First of all I like to watch the fish. Cats are not going to get any benefit since they are not eating. I hope my bream and stripers come out of the winter with at least no weight loss and healthier in the spring than they would have been otherwise.
I feed the fish during the warm weather with Purina or a floating catfish feed. Most years I stop feeding about mid November. This year being lazy I left my Kenco straight shooter running during December. When I went to get the feeder(December 7)
it still had a little feed in it so I tossed some in the pond. Much to my surpise the fish were still feeding. So I filled the feeder up and left it.
I have checked it most weekend since and the bream and hybrid stripers are still feeding. We have not had real cold weather so far until last week, lows in the 20's and highs in the 30's/40's. When I went to my farm saturday it was 35 degrees and I was sure the feeding would be over. Nope!
Here are my observations
-catfish will not eat when it is cold, hybrid bream and hybrid stripers will
-they will eat less but they are as active feeding as in warm weather.
-Must feed in one spot, during the summer I can put feed anywhere in the pond and the fish will find it. I tried this last saturday and they would only eat around the feeder.
-On warm winter days in past years I put some feed in and got no activity. If you are going to winter feed you must continue your summer feeding with no break.
What benefit do I hope to get from my winter feeding? First of all I like to watch the fish. Cats are not going to get any benefit since they are not eating. I hope my bream and stripers come out of the winter with at least no weight loss and healthier in the spring than they would have been otherwise.