Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding supplemental Feeding vs Natural forage

Im still relatively new to this but wanted to compare feeding LMB supplemental feed (Purina) vs forage and other fish. What are the pros and cons? Is it similar to deer where feeding cost a good bit more however natural forage last longer and benefits more animals?

We first have to understand the term "supplemental". In wild deer, generally the vast majority of a deer's diet is going to consist of natural vegetation. They'll come to the deer feeder and feed on corn, soybeans, etc. Especially during the harsher times of the year for them. Winter and in some areas, late summer. However, in most cases deer still rely heavily on natural forage. Think of that added corn, soybeans as someone buying minnows and crayfish from a hatchery to feed to their bass. That is where the term supplemental comes in. Even deer with access to high quality food plots, still generally get far more of their food from natural vegetation than the food plots. Think of these food plots as habitat manipulation such as rock piles, brush piles, aquatic vegetation, etc that provides habitat for more fish foods to grow.

In some very heavily manged ranches, deer populations may be so reliant on supplemental feeding that a larger portion of their diet is man provided, but this is rare. Most of these ranches where deer become highly reliant on supplemental feed are not free range, but rather high fenced where the deer cannot come and go as they please. Many of these ranches also feed protein/deer pellets. Even in deer, it can take a while for them to learn to eat protein/deer pellets as opposed to corn/soybeans. This is where the line is drawn from supplemental feeding, to replacement diet feeding. You have now gotten tot he point where the deer rely more on the man provided feed than the natural feed. It is no longer supplemental but rather the primary diet source. So think of protein pellets as fish/protein pellets and corn/soybeans put out by people as minnows/crayfish you stock into your pond to help feed your bass.

In ponds, think of them more as pens with deer in them. However, the deer are bass in the case of ponds. Unlike deer, your bass must first be trained to eat your pellets. If you put pellets in front of a 12" bass that all its life has eaten live prey, it will not eat the pellets. You must obtain "feed trained" or "pellet trained" bass. These bass from a very young age are trained to eat pellet food. Occasionally, larger bass will learn to eat pellets, but even then only a small percentage of the population will and it is usually under very over populated conditions where the bass are extremely hungry will they learn to eat pellets as adults. Not like deer where most of the population over time will generally learn to eat pelleted feeds.

So, I'll make 4 comparisons:

Ponds(this would include fish hatcheries) with bass that are feed trained and rely almost solely on that feed=Pens with deer that are completely reliant on man provided food.

Lakes and some ponds where bass are feed trained where reliance on pellets isn't as high, but pellets still make up a high percentage of their diet=High fenced deer ranches where there is some natural forage for the deer but deer densities are just too high for natural forage to support so supplemental feeding is added.

Lakes and ponds where no supplemental feeding is done but for example fertilization is implemented allowing natural food sources to boom and habitat work is done such as adding rock piles, proper aquatic vegetation is permitted to grow, etc=Free range deer herd where food plots are planted, habitat management such as timbering, etc and native forage is fertilized to increase natural feed for deer to eat.

Lakes and ponds where no fertilization or habitat work is done and no supplemental feeding is done=Deer herd that is free range where no habitat management is done, no food plots planted and no fertilizing of the natural forage present is done.

Pros of feeding your bass:

You can support more bass per acre.

You can generally grow LMB/SMB faster.

Easier to manage, pellets can be bought and fed. No worry about producing forage for your bass to eat the natural way.


Cons of feeding your bass:

LMB that are mostly pellet fed tend to top out in the 8 pound range. Not sure I know of a LMB that is double digits that was mostly pellet fed.

If you stop feeding, you can expect serious food chain problems.

The babies of your pellet trained LMB/SMB will most likely not be pellet trained, meaning you will have to work hard to remove as many of those bass as possible and replace them with more hatchery bought pellet raised bass if you want to continue to see the benefits of pellet trained bass.

Bass food costs money and if you don't feed by hand which takes time, you have to feed with a feeder. They cost money to buy and maintain.

Pellet trained LMB often forget their training and stop utilizing pellets.

IMO, there are ponds and the goals that go with those ponds that feeding of bass pellets makes a lot of sense. In particular ponds, particularly those that receive high fishing pressure per surface acre.

Other ponds and the goals that go with those ponds makes it where it doesn't make sense to feed the bass. There are more ponds and goals where the feeding of the forage fish(BG, etc) is more prudent. Keep in mind that feeding of the forage fish can lead to more bass per acre as well. Plus, feeding BG is far easier than feeding bass over the long run. BG can pellet train on their own, can grow to huge sizes on a mostly pellet diet.

CJB,

Thanks for the detailed response, So im most likely going to go the natural forage route, maybe a small feeder to feed BG with, ( i have a few already). So would I drain the lake and plant the banks of it before I stock it? how would you lime a lake, just pour it into the water?

Add to the list

natural food is better for fish over the long term

pellets (the right type) are 4 + times more efficient than natural food because the fish does not have to expend energy to catch it

lack of food is the single biggest limiting factor in fish growth and condition

From my presentation at PB IV – Fish Nutrition – Applied Science to Small Waters

Bioenergetics is the subject of a field of biochemistry that concerns energy flow and transformation through living systems.

Growth, development and metabolism are some of the central phenomena in the study of biological organisms. The role of energy is fundamental to such biological processes. The ability to harness energy from a variety of metabolic pathways is a property of all living organisms. Life is dependent on energy transformations; living organisms survive because of exchange of energy within and without.

Living organisms obtain energy from organic and inorganic materials. For example, lithotrophs can oxidize minerals . In photosynthesis, autotrophs can produce ATP using light energy. Heterotrophs (including fish) must consume organic compounds. These are mostly carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The amount of energy actually obtained by the organism is lower than the amount present in the food; there are losses in digestion, metabolism, and thermogenesis.

Energy Budget ---- Inputs = Outputs + Growth


Because fish growth often is limited by food availability, supplemental feeding is a logical tool to improve the condition of fish in small impoundments as the energy cost for bluegill to feed on pellets is small relative to the high caloric intake, which can be 4-5 times greater than those fed natural foods (Schalles and Wissing 1976). Substantial increases in the standing stock of bluegill in ponds that receive pellet feed have been recorded (Schmittou 1969) and, in lakes, pellet feeding has been found to increase the number of large bluegills (Nail and Powell 1975).

These results indicate that total fish production and production of bluegill were each increased approximately 75 to 80% by supplemental feeding in 19 months after stocking (Schmittou 1967)

Previous studies demonstrated that feed in excess of 10 pounds per acre per day in bluegill ponds was not utilized. Some accumulated and decomposed, thus depleting the supply of dissolved oxygen which resulted in fish kills (Schmittou 1967) .

the rate of growth of sunfish can be increased by short-circuiting the food cycle, thereby producing harvestable size sunfish in a shorter period of time than would occur under natural conditions (Carnes 1966).

The pellet size should be approximately 20-30% of the size of the fish species mouth gape. Feeding too small a pellet results in inefficient feeding because more energy is used in finding and eating more pellets. Conversely, pellets that are too large will depress feeding and, in the extreme, cause choking. Select the largest sized feed the fish will actively eat. Addition of supplemental pelleted feed did not contribute to the rate of growth of young shad, but did increase the growth and spawning frequency of adults.