Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Going from one feeder to two possibly.

Hi All, I would appreciate any feedback on this possible idea or what might work better.

Since my pond is finally full,I can really work with the fish now. I will be stocking additional 6" Overton select CNBG this month. And I am considering utilizing an additional feeder to feed the CNBG. The current feeder has been utilized to feed all the fish. Of course the CC get most of it but the CNBG do attack the fringe. That being said I have this thought, If I utilize the current feeder to continue feeding the CC with a little larger feed (cheaper too).

I would then put the new feeder 180 degrees opposite the current feeder(other side of the pond) and continue the Aquamax 500. I would delay the second feeder by 10 min. or so. The CC would be eating from the first feeder then the second would go off for the CNBG with the more favored Aquamax. Since the pond is so small it would be a short trip over for the CC,but they have been feeding at this feeder since they were first put in the pond. if that matters.

I know what assuming does, but I would think the CNBG would hold off because of the feed size and flavor difference (preference for Aquamax) between the two feeds. The CC might not be as aggressive with the Aquamax because the they might be somewhat satisfied by the catfish feed.

I am sure someone here has tried something like this and it either was partially successful or completely failed.

Another Idea could be use floating CC feed and mix a slow sinking Aquamax product in the current feeder to give the CNBG a better chance for feed, if the CC will continue to stay on top for the most part and the CNBG could feed under the CC to some degree?

Another Idea is to have the second feeder with netting that would not let the bigger CC in, but let the majority of the CNBG feed?

Just some crap swimming around in my head. I do not want to waste time on stuff that has tried and failed.

Thanks in advance for input,ideas and knowledge.

mpc that can work (2 feeders a min or 2 apart). There are other ways also like with pellet size and location which can work.

I do want to point out that just because an attempted feeding or other pond experiment didn't work at one pond does not mean it will not work for you. That happens plenty in this world.

Those will be good CNBG !

mpc-
Sounds like a very worthwhile experiment.

Catfish are a]Pellet Pigs b] Very smart. This can be a challenge when you're trying to preferentially feed CNBG; the cats are going want as much and as high quality feed as possible. Your ideas about timing and feeder location should help, and using smaller AM 500 for your CNBG might help as well, unless the cats really decide they prefer the taste of AM, which is possible.

Another thing you could do is fish for the cats-heavily-just around the CNBG feeder, and just with pellets or pellet lookalikes like Stubby Steves....I've not tried this, but I'll bet your cats will figure out pretty quickly that they shouldn't eat pellets at that feeder.

Hi Ewest and Yolk Sac. Thanks for the reply's. Well, I was kinda hoping that, at the least, it could be a good possibility to make that change to help the CNBG.

I think with two feeders that I could increase the CC feed a bit and stay right at the 10 to 15 min. time frame. Next year as I pull heavily from the CC I can cut that feed back. I have decided to keep around 20 or so CC,but not restock until I pull at least 65 of the original 70 stocked. I may wait one year after the last CC are pulled to help prevent additional predation of the CNBG, if my ratio of LMB to CNBG are out of whack.

I hope that the CNBG will just move over to the 2nd feeder when I put it in next spring, but I may try to kinda coax them that direction with just hand feeding them just outside the distribution range of the current feeder. I do not know if CNBG will move that way,but at least I can see if the CC will stay were the 1st feeder is or not. I am assuming again, but timing should make a difference if I wait until the 1st feeding dies down and then try to move the CNBG towards the 2nd feeder.


I have already pulled 7 CC out and I have no spawn structure for the CC +1 killed by a Heron.The Heron Died from SDS(Sudden Death Syndrome),very sad day when it quit coming by for a visit.

I will pull another 10 or so CC out this month(via grand kids) and hope I pull several more of the larger CC. I plan on hitting the LMB pretty hard this fall just to see what I have, plus keep anything over 13",of the LMB.

I want to fish the CNBG, but will wait until next summer which will be a full 2 years of growth and spawning.

As far as size of feed I am thinking of using the Aquamax Pond 2000 which is 5/16" for the CC, i.e. get more with less effort and then switch over to Grower 400 3/32" for the CNBG,that might make it easier for the smaller 2" to 3" and up CNBG have faster growth rates. I currently feed just Aquamax 500 for all.

I think it is a great Idea to make the CC hook shy at the 2nd feeder by making them hook shy with SS. I really like that stuff anyway, stays on the hook. I hope it works on the Tilapia I will put in next year, as well.

Sorry I got so long winded. Thanks again for the input.

Why worry about the CC and CNBG at the same feeder?

Are the CC so aggressive they scare BG away from feeding? Or is it that the CC are so large they will eat the BG?

Bigger CC will inhibit the CNBG from eating while they vacuum up all the food. The CNBG will feed but not enough as they won't rush in with all the big CC eating.

I would feed the CNBG AM 500 & 600 and or GFC as 2000 and I think Grower 400 are catfish food (difference in contents - plant based protein rather than fish meal and animal products).

I would NOT make the CC hook shy at the 2nd feeder. Once you catch them, good luck catching them again, no matter what feeder you are at.

I've taken to NOT releasing any CC caught. I haven't been able to tell for sure if any that have been released have been re-caught.

I duobt that you'll be able to catch 64 CC from your pond. Plaese, please prove me wrong. That will mean that there is still hope for my pond then!

Esshup, If I make them hook shy on Stubby Steves, do you think they might not take blood bait then? Plus I use sour mash to kinda get the turned on anyway when I am ready to catch fish.

I can't say for sure, but I can tell you what is going on in my pond.

I stocked between 100 and 150 of them a number of years ago. The last batch that were stocked numbered 100, and I fin clipped every one. That was in 2008. There were a few 5# CC in the pond before that. 5/15/2009 I caught one in the spring on a floating 6" rapala. It was 28" and 14.9# I tagged it with a numbered floy tag and released it. On 7/11/2010 I caught one that was 29.5" and 15.94# on a piece of hot dog on a trot line. I tagged that one with a numbered floy tag and released it.

No matter what I use, I have not caught those fish again. If catfish are coming up in the food that is on the surface, and I throw out a piece of food with a hook in it, OR if I throw out a handful of food, they disappear for that feeding cycle.

Just last week I noticed a few CC coming and eating floating food close to shore. I will try and catch one tomorrow evening.

When I was able to hook CC in my pond, AND also in my neighbors pond, once one CC is hooked, the others won't bite until the next feeding cycle, or the next day.

I've tried hotdogs, Stubby Steves, shrimp, different stink baits, cut up BG and even small live BG. They just are too smart. Last one that was caught was about a year ago, and like I said, I just noticed some coming up for food now.

Your results may vary, but in my pond, and my nieghbors pond, they are difficult to impossible to catch once they are bigger and possibly have been caught once. I know the 2 that I tagged have not been caught again, and neither have been seen dead.

A Question in reference to the CC and BG at the feeder. I might be having a similar situation in my pond as MPC.

Would it help to have more cover for the BG in the feeding area? Or would the CC still be to dominating over the BG?

Hi Fish and Chips, I do not know about the cover to help CNBG. I do not have a lot of structure (Mostly whole trees) and what I do have is concentrated in 2' to 5' ft of water. I razed them off the floor of the pond 15" to allow the fish to swim under the structure as well as around etc. and to keep the trees from sinking to far into the sediment.

I tend to think that if you have structure, that is in the right place you may be able to distribute the feed in or around the structure to see how it goes for a few weeks.

I feel that esshup and ewest knowledge & experience with CC and CNBG tells us that if you want to catch CC, you had better catch them and keep them unless you want big CNBG eaters in the pond. I do not want any big CC,so any over 3# I will keep and probably all I catch. Restocking CC is easier than trying to grow superior CNBG (Big) that CC will gulp down.

I am going to say that I kinda have a different scenario here, than some, in that I am trying to have some CC in a Trophy focused CNBG pond, which may be hard or impossible to do. That said CC kept and grown out to the 2 to 3# range do not seem to hit the CNBG that hard, IMHO and from what I read here.Over 3# CC will hurt the CNBG due to mouth gape.

If you decide to try the feed in cover technique, please let us know how it goes and I might just try that, even though I will probably still have two feeders. What I mean by that is, I will continue to feed the CC with the larger feed size(lower protein 32% grain based) with the current feeder and no structure,then have the second feeder with structure and feed the CNBG the smaller size feed (Aquamqx mix of 400,500,and maybe 600) with structure in place to slow down the larger CC from coming around as much on the 2nd feeder. It will be interesting to see. It kinda stands to reason(my reasoning???) to me that bigger CC would not like swimming through tight structure to get at the second feeder/feeding, when they have open water and are already feeding in another area.

I guess one question I have is do CNBG like to feed around structure,and that I do not know. They will feed, but do they like or prefer that to open water. 2nd, do CNBG prefer Deep water under them or shallow under them,when they are feeding? That I do not know.

Thanks again everyone for your Ideas and opinions,you have my creative juices flowing with the Ideas. Good food for thought.