Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding Programs

I think I am goind to switch gears on a feeding program for my 33 acre lake (was 25 acres last year).

For the last few years I have been feeding the big game fish bigger sized pellets and have had great success putting weight fast on HSB, LMB, SMB, Rainbow Trout, CC and BG. Anyhow now I am pondering switching gears a bit and focussing on feeding mainly the smaller fish. I dont really need to keep feeding the big ones, they are already to the sizes I want them to be. Now my thinking is to change up the feeding times, food size and even locations and try to start feeding all of the small fish in the lake.

I guess I have been thinking that I want more fish (without buying them) as opposed to bigger fish. My lake is extremely infertile and visibility is over 20 feet. Tons of deep, clean, clear water that I want to literally fill up with fish.

Fertilizing is out of the question due to the swimmers and scuba divers loving the clear water. I think I will be making the change in the next week or two and am just wondering the effects its going to have on the big boys not getting their usual free meals so easily, as well as a few other question marks I have about what will happen.

Anyhow I will report back with some mo details and videos as they are available.

It should be an interesting experiment. I THINK that the welfarites will just work harder on smaller pellets and crowd the little guys out.

Looking forward to the results.

[quote=Dave Davidson1]It should be an interesting experiment. I THINK that the welfarites will just work harder on smaller pellets and crowd the little guys out.

That would be my bet as well. I hope it goes according to the plan, though.

I think the big boys are gonna hammer the natural forage a whole lot harder. If you have GSH or other natural forage in their, the big boys who were filling their bellies on pellets are gonna look somewhere for food... You may also see a decline in Wr in the big boys as well. They won't shrink length wise but, may very well shrink girth wise...

This lake is very different from most. It is elevated on a hill with absolutely no runoff and the bottom consists of a sandy carbon like substance. There is just no fertility and no natural forage. Pellets are the main forage. There was virtually nothing in this lake before we started supplementally feeding.

I am going to get pretty creative with this new feeding program.
One feeding station will stay on the VIP dock feeding 7.5 mm 40% protein pellets.
2 other feeding stations will stay on the fishing docks, but are going to be throwing 4.5 mm instead of the 7.5 mm and I am going to change up the feed times to go off later in the morning and earlier in the evening to deter the bigger fish.

Then I have a scatter feeder in 3 foot of water feeding 1500 8 inch hybrid striped bass 5.5 mm 40% protein pellets 3 times per day, and they live on that beach 24 hrs per day waiting for their meals.

My other 3 feeding stations are going to be moved to shallow flats and focus on throwing 3.5 mm tiny nuggets to try to model the HSB feeder and feed the small BG and Perch. I will create entire ecosystems around these feeders to try to get some reproduced native fish grown up a bit.

For my situation and goals for the lake, I think its time to change up the feeding program to focus on feeding the future generations.

Sounds like a very interesting plan... If anyone can pull it off, you the man! Do you think these born in pond fish would know to feed on the pellets? If as you said there is little fertility, they may have no choice I suppose... Have you tried establishing forage like GSH or in a lake your size emerald or spottail shiners?

Nate, a guy named David Reed used to post here. He raised huge bass. One of his feeders consisted of a piece of PVC pipe wired to a dock. He bored holes in it and poured in pellets. The stuff turned to mush and the BG came and sucked it out.

DD1,
I will take a few pics of the new mush feeders, I am gonna give that a try!