I have a bass pond that I'm in the process of fixing the bass overcrowding problem in. I also have another pond that has lots of small bluegill. I'm planning to get some of the bluegill out with a bait casting net and traps and feed them to the bass. I'm wondering if anyone out there has found a way to train bass to eat bluegill like this on command. Like is there some way to injure a bluegill to make it thrash/twitch/swim around on the surface until a bass comes and makes of meal of it (hopefully with a big splash).

I noticed some LMB cruising near shore when the feeder went off, and chasing some small BG. I took a small BG, hooked it near the tail with the small hook that I was catching them on, and dangled it at the waters surface. The LMB came and grabbed it, and I pulled the hook out of the BG. It got to the point that I'd really have to yank the BG out of the water when I was catching them or the LMB would beat me to them.

Try cutting the tail and the upper fin off one of the small BG with scissors and see how that goes.

Try cutting off various fins to see how that works. It won't take the bass long to figure out the BG are easy pickins when you toss them in.

I know that there is a video out there when a couple of guys are hand feeding SMB with fish while they are snorkeling. I don't remember where I saw it, though.

Handfeeding with what, fish? Remember Coach. Remember!

It was Nate's bunch.

It doesn't take much maiming of a BG for a bass to have easy pickins. Clip top part or bottom part of tail, or one side fin. If the bass are lazy feed hogs like mine, catch some bluegill; pinch them gently behind the eyes. They will swim erraticly like;...well if you were pinched on the medula oblongata by a 500# gorilla.
PS...catching BG in a cast net is a hit and mostly miss proposition.

Maybe my pond is just super-overcrowded with bluegill. I can throw the baitcasting net anywhere in it and catch 20-30 little bluegill pretty much every time.

Has anyone ever tried stuffing enough floating fish food pellets into a bluegill's mouth/gut to make it over-buoyant for this purpose? I may try that this weekend in addition to the fin cutting and eye pinching techniques.

perfect time of year to catch a bunch of small lmb spawners before feeding any bg to the rest.

Stuffed Bluegill...its whats for dinner tonite!

Bass are very trainable. When i walk down tho the pond you can literally see the water parting as the bass come when they see me from a distance. I freak people out by whistling to them and tell them I am calling my bass. they will follow me all the way arounf the pond. I use rigging wire pushed through bream and attached to a line and telescopic pole to feed the bass sometimes or just squeeze the bg or bream and chunk them to the bass. Now when I trim fat from chicken or clean out the freezer of old meat, the bass literally love it if broken into proper sizes. Fun to watch.

Don't want to hijack thread, but welcome gotta nuddn.
Where are you from in GA?

I think it is awesome to cut small yoy up to 8" and fed them bigger bass, most ponds here are bass crowded anyways. On the fin clip thing be agressive I have had clients catch bass where we clipped a few fins, we now clip all of em even tail fin and they can still swim.

bg have to be close to the top natural food for lmb already. I cannot see why they would have to be trained to eat what they naturally do. I throw hundreds sometimes thousands in different ponds over a season. The bass go into a frenzy. Sometimes boiling and fighting over the bg, two attacking the same fish. A few of my ponds the lmb are just stacked though. I have seen them do the same with crawdads, and even cut chunks of American Shad. As far as feeding by hand, depends how hungry the fish are, and how long you have been around them. I know a few guys that treat them like pets. Never fish for them. They readily hand feed, up to 10 lbers.

Edgar,

I am from Vidalia Ga

How long does it take to train LMB to come for their meal? I've been getting BG from my two traps twice a day for the last week or so and done different variations of clipping, pinching, stuffing, and just tossing and have seen a few get taken by my hungry bass. But more often than not nothing happens. (I'm sure they eventually get eaten though.) I wasn't expecting to train them in one week. But if anyone has experience in this, I'd love to know more or less how long it takes before I'll be able to toss a BG in and watch a bass devour it every time.

I haven't tried the rigging wire thing yet. How do you 'hook' the BG so that it comes off easily when the LMB takes it?

Time it takes will depend on several things including how hungry bass are as PFrog suggests. Another thing that will deter is how hard the bass have been fished in the past which would produce some negative influence of humans. The LMB will have to "learn" to overcome this "shyness". I think you are correct, damaged BG are getting eaten sooner or later maybe often later. Greg G provides good insight as to trimming of fins of feeder fish. It may take 3-6 wks or more for LMB to be conditioned/learn to take the dead ones off the top. Forage fish food shortages definately will enhance training time of the LMB. Pellet trained bass who are used to human feeding will train to eat BG a lot quicker than hard fished "wild" bass. Generally the longer and more regularly you do add the wounded BG the more conditioned the bass will become. Over a year or two more and more new, younger recruited bass will enter/learn the feeding foray. Pond size and number of feedig locations should also have an affect on feed training.

Just to give you an update on this. I've been emptying my three traps at least once day (sometimes 3-4) and throwing them into the same spot in the bass pond. And it's now like a few of you said. The bass are there waiting for me. And they go crazy when I start throwing the BG in. My original reason for doing this was to not 'waste' the bluegill as I was draining another overcrowded BG pond. I've had so much fun doing it that I'm having second thoughts about getting rid of all the BG and making it a catfish pond. Now I wish I had a third pond just to raise BG to feed to the bass.

Resurrecting an old thread.
I've been trapping BG with my new clover leaf trap. Feeding the bass is the highlight of my day!!

Been hoping to catch a GSF but so far, struck out. That trap works very well.

Clay, did you already post a picture of your trap? Did you make it yourself? How about bait and how long you keep it out before checking it?

Then when you feed the bass do you impair the BG motion in any way?

Thanks
CC

I bought the trap.

www.reeltexasoutdoors.com/collections/bait-fish-traps/products/clover-perch-trap-bait-fish-trap

I use tractor supply catfish chow for bait. $12.99 per 50 lbs. It's the McDonald's of fish food.
I leave it out a couple hours and usually give it two soaks.

I cut the tail nearly off with my pocket knife before tossing them in.
The bass follow me around the pond now.
I'm experimenting with BG sizes.
I'm shocked at how large a BG a LMB can consume.

This old thread I started popped up in my email today. Here's a video I made a while back of me feeding the bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNNeATshNSk

Cool video. I have a couple I hand feed sometimes but the water is not very clear and they have to beat the CC so they don't always get one.

If you are disabling sunfish for feeding to bass, it helps to use a pair of sharp scissors to trim fins - clean, fast cuts.

Even better if you could catch small skinny LMB and feed them to the bigguns.

I've got to where when I cut the tail fin off I cut all the way through the spine in the meat. I used to just cut the fin off so the fish would live till the LMB would find it. Now I cut it off in the meat so the fish will bleed out and die.

I probably would not do this if I did not have CC. But with the large CC in the pond, they make quick work of any fish that is disabled.

With the tail fin cut off in the meat the fish still swims away but severely disabled. When I do these off the dock if a LMB doesn't get it, the CC quickly do.

Scissors like Bill says.

Spent an hour yesterday hand feeding disabled 3" BG to my LMB.
I have about 8 bass that are large enough to eat 3" forage, ranging from 5 lbs to 1.5lb.

The interesting part is I'm seeing a pattern of behaviour from individual fish.
The largest one is very aggressive, grabbing the BG immediately.

One of the 2lb fish likes to follow the disabled BG, but not hit it- even though every opportunity is given.
Odd behaviour to watch.

Nothing scientific, just an observation and pattern that is definitely reoccurring.

For the record, my small bass population has an over abundance of forage.
The larger fish were bucket stocked last summer from my neighbors pond.
His pond has much more cover than mine, so the bass have had to adjust their hunting techniques to suit.

My larger females are almost always the most aggressive. I tend to throw the largest crippled CNBG out first, because I've had those larger LMB leave after one handout. The bigger the BG, the less competition for the larger fish also.

For those that are hand feeding crippled fish, think height as well as length when evaluating handouts. LMB's gape determines everything.

If I have a really large GSF or BG to dispose of I will also clip off the dorsal spines to make the fish easier to swallow and more vulnerable. With scissors it is a simple job.