I feed as close to daily by hand, but I miss days, don't feed as much as I could/should. So with Christmas coming, I think I'm going to ask Santa for a feeder. I tend to feed Aquamax 500/600. So who has a feeder that they really are happy they purchased and who has one that I'd be better off avoiding? Brands and model numbers help narrow it down. I appreciate your help.
kjm, I sell several brands. They each have thier advantage soem cheaper and soem more expensive. Search the archives for the answer to this one it has been discussed many times.
I have two Sweeney feeders and a third on order. Feeders have been discussed many, many times here. I do not recall, at least in the last two or three years, any discussion of Sweeney feeders ever being a problem. They seem to have enough experience that most of the timer, clogging, etc. issues have been resolved.
Bing
Lots of choices but it depends on your needs , goals and budget. How big is the pond , how much do you feed and are you there most days to check on things ,etc.
My only feed back (get it feeder - feed back, Ok I freely admit it was a lame play on words) is that you support a Pond Boss vendor and buy the feeder through one of them. The vendors support us, we should support them.
Since you are asking Santa for a feeder, why not ask for the best? My first choice...Tx Hunter, second choice...Sweeney.
You'll want something that is heavy duty, leak-tight, varmint-proof, with reliable solar panel and timer, and ability to work on the mechanism or clean out guts from time to time. Anything less than this and you might as well feed by hand.
What feeders will handle Purina Bass pellet?
Sweeney makes one. It is likely on their web site. It may be called Big Mouth, not sure though.
Bing
And, they're the only one that I'm aware of.
I guess I must be the exception, I have 3 Sweeney fish feeders and I have had to work on at least one of them all summer. Maybe I just have 3 lemmons. Just this summer I have had one motor go out, one timer go out, one unit constantly dumped pellets into the lower box housing where the motor is located. If it rains all 3 units leak and the wet pellets form a giant clog of wet (soured) pellets that have to be cleaned out. Sorry to be so negative but these things are wearing me out!
I agree with the comment made earlier about supporting the manufacturers that support Pond Boss; however, I believe so strongly in the Monarch Hunting Products. I felt compelled to chime in.
Years ago (9 to be exact)I bought my first Monarch to feed deer. Used it without problem or concern for the first deer season. Simply because of laziness, I left in the pasture for the entire year. Prior to the following deer season, I assessed the situation to find: the cattle knocked it over, knocked the cover plate off, it was lying face up (meaning that it collected rain in the timer), a bird nested inside the timer and the dirt dobbers took up residence inside as well. I cleaned it out, replaced the battery and it has continued to work perfectly ever since.
Since then, I have purchased 5 more. Three of which I converted into fish feeders. At the time, Monarch did not offer a fish feeder. They do now. I converted mine by simply adding some flashing around the back half (the half toward the land) of the feeder/barrel. Therefore, feed is slung out into the pond on the open/front portion and hits the flashing and drops down on the back-half with the flashing. They work great.
Stay away from anything with Moultrie on it. Unless you want to learn how to cuss!
big gulp, nothing wrong with stating an opinion. I encourage you to talk to them and have them advertise in PB if indeed they now have a great fish feeder. This is one of their best sources of clients. I disagree with the comment about Moultrie. Their newer unit (2yrs old) if a fine unit for the money. THey have had some leak issues but outside that not a bad unit for the money.
Yes we have had issues with a few sweeney feeders. leaking not working and feed getting into the lower unit so your not alone.
All good choices. I don't know the Monarch folks. Big Gulp, you should have them contact us...this is a good market for good products. Since I don't know them, I deleted the url in your first post. That's our policy. We love the opinions, but won't allow sales solicitations for a company we don't know.
There is one thing about all feeders. They are machines. Machines break and/or wear out. Because of that, I have chosen to work with the companies most willing to be customer service oriented.
I know Zach Sweeney. I knew his dad, the founder of the company. Zach has always been responsive to issues with his feeders. Larry, I would call Zach and tell him the issues. I bet he acts on it...in your favor.
I'm getting to know Chris Blood quite a bit better. He's a key cog with Texas Hunter. I'm seeing more and more of their feeders in the field and everyone I speak with tells me they are quality products. The hoppers are large, too...don't have to fill them as often.
I'm regularly conversing with Ron Ferguson of BA Products, makers of Aquapro Feeders. He is earnestly working with landowners to figure out and solve issues they have had with products in the recent past.
Moultrie is working harder to service the fish feeder market and tap into their fair share. Their products seem to be improving, too.
There are others out there, too. Feeding fish is becoming more lucrative for the feeder companies and I expect there'll be more of them surface in the not-too-near future.
The only feeder that throws the big pellets is Sweeney's Big Mouth feeder.
When Dr. Griffin designed Aquamax Largemouth, I contacted Sweeney, Texas Hunter, AquaPro and All Seasons. The only one interested was Zach Sweeney. One company was battling its own product fires and wasn't capable of R&D, another was working to acquire another company and didn't have time and the other one was too busy to be interested. That was two years ago.
My apologies on the url. I am a new member and have not taken the time to read all the rules and etc. I won't let it happen again. Thanks for the insight.
Welcome to PB Big Gulp. Have the Monarch folks call Bob at the PB office. In the meantime tell us about your ponds.
ewest, I married into to a ranching operation in central Texas. We have 36 ponds with fish in 22. 4 are designated for catfish and the rest are filled with bass. They range in size from 1/3 acre to 14+ acres. The 14+ acre pond is approximately 50 years old. Most of the others are less than 10.
We started our fish program in 2000 with FHM and CNB. A year later, we added the LMB (some Floridas and some Northerns). I have one pond consisting of only Floridas and the forage fish that I use as a brood to spread my genetics.
Thus far, our largest fish caught is 13.5 lbs (March 2009). As you can probably imagine,I am extremely proud. It was caught in a 4 acre pond consisting of FL & northerns. I entered a picture of it into the Aquamax Big Fish contest and was notified last week that I won this month!
I sold my big fancy bass boat in 2005, quit going to all the public lakes in Texas, bought a 10ft plastic bass buster/buggy type boat and started catching fish! My 6 and 4 yr old kids absolutely love it!
PHOTOS, WE NEED PHOTOS!!!
Photos of the 13.5 pound fish, photos of some of the ponds, aerial photos, ground photos, subterranean photos, above water photos, under water photos, photos from the west, photos from the east.
Big Gulp, please post some photos or at least a pencil sketch.
Oh and welcome to Pond Boss, we're glad you found us!
I've got pictures! I just can't figure out how to attach them to this email/forum string. I can copy the pictures, I just can't paste them. You got any ideas???????
Check out this link to the archive thread on posting pics here:
Posting Pics on the Forum You should set up a free photobuck (www.photobucket.com) account to make it simple. Play around with the process a little and you'll get it figured out pretty quickly.
Then get those pics posted!
Glad to help. The links are there, now you just need to use the bottom option in the dropdown menu on Photobucket that contains the "IMG" code. That's the one that will allow the pictures to actually appear within your post.
OP, I went through 3 Aquapro feeders before getting one that worked. Now, (knock on wood) this last feeder hasn't missed a beat since July.
My next feeder purchase is the Sweeney Big Mouth, for whenever my pond rises enough to actually stock some LMB.
I'm a big time fan of Monarch, they make great blinds, quad pods, deer feeders etc. I sill use a controller I bought from them in 1997.
Man I am so Fed up with these Feeders its rediculous!!! It is more than Obvious that these things were NOT designed by degreed engineers!!
I am in the process of taking a deer Hopper and designing and making my own feeder...
big_pond, nice pictures... Great idea using an old golf glove to lip the bass.
I agree with the golf glove comment. That is a friend of ours that caught a ton of bass (75-100)in a couple of evenings. Apparently, his thumb was raw.
My 6 yr old son always kisses, like Jimmy Houston, the bass before he releases them. Therefore, my wife can always tell how good the fishing has been by the smell of fish on his breath and the lack of skin on my thumb!
Man I am so Fed up with these Feeders its rediculous!!! It is more than Obvious that these things were NOT designed by degreed engineers!!
I am in the process of taking a deer Hopper and designing and making my own feeder...
I have no experience with feeders. In fact the only feeders I've ever actually watched work were at the Lusk Lodge 2. BTW, he feeds LMB with some huge pellets. It is absolutely amazing to watch LMB hammer those pellets. They jump completely out of the water when hitting a pellet just like is was live prey.
Do all feeders drop feed onto a spinning plate to fling the feed? Perhaps designing a completely different approach. I'll bet Theo could design one and Dwight could build it.
Great looking fish. I like the way y'all held them. Did you release?
Absolutely! We release all of the big broods. Depending on the time of year and/or situation, we may release them into a different pond. Propagation is a lot cheaper than buying!
We try to control our genetics. Therefore, we work to keep the same genetic mix (florida:northern) in certain ponds.
). The cats got it all after he landed on the far side.
