Bill, if you expect LMB to be a put and take, better be durn sure you can "take" them all before they pull off a spawn, or make durn sure you only stock single sex (if you can actually do that). If not, you'll never be able to "take" them all. Same with BG.
Flame, making the choice between FHM and pellets will depend on your pocketbook, your schedule, and the fish that you stock.
It also depends on your goals for the pond, and how fast you want the fish to grow.
If no fatheads are planned (and no other small forage fish planned in their place), then here's what you should consider:
1) Your fish that you stock have to be feed trained.
2) You have to feed 'em by hand EVERY day, at the same time, and you should plan on feeding multiple times a day.
3) If you can't do #2, you better buy the best, most reliable feeder you can find - which to me means a Texas Hunter feeder.
4) You have to manage your pond the first year or two like an aquaculture facility - roughly 90% of the food the fish get will be in the form or fish pellets.
5) You'll really need to monitor the fish growth closely and adjust the amount of food according to growth that is seen.
If you stock fatheads or other small forage fish and let the population expand before stocking the predators then you don't *have to* feed pellets at all, again depending on your goals and how fast you want the fish to grow.
When the majority of us are talking about feeding fish pellets, we are talking about supplementally feeding the fish, not making the pellets the main food source in the pond.
Take my personal pond for example, and the LMB that are in the pond. I feed around 50# to 100# of AM600 per month when the fish are feeding well. I have a very hard time keeping a good population of Bluegills in the pond because the LMB eat a LOT of them. I can put 2,500 in the pond at 3"-4" and in a year there are few to be seen.
So, think of the FHM as the BG in a newly stocked pond. How much more food would I have to be feeding to make up for all those BG?
On the flip side, how many more BG would I need to have in the pond to feed the LMB if I wasn't feeding??
