While trying to find out about different feeders that are available, the question came up of how large of an area do you need to feed fish.
I have a 1/2 ac pond with an average depth of 12' (WAG). It is due to be stocked in a week or so with 500 CNBG, 100 LMB, 10 lbs forage fish and 50 shell crackers. If I feed from a dock that is 14' from shore, how large of an area should I cover? Can the fish be too crowded when you feed?

I don't think it matters much. Some hand feed and it is thrown in a smaller area, some use a automatic feeder that will throw it 30-40 feet. Main thing is to make sure it is far enough out that food stays away from bank long enough for them to eat it.

I can't answer your question but I do have a question. Are you sure 100 LMB are not too many for a 1/2 acre? How big of CNBG, RES and LMB are you stocking?

I will re-post this here:

One of my feed corrals is a 10 foot by 2.5 foot rectangle and in the other pond it is a square 3.5 feet on a side. All inside measures, made of 3" DWV PVC pipe and 4 ells.
They seem to be plenty big. The fish (BG and CC) come to the same place every day to get food. When it is not windy (rare) I throw feed along the outsides of the corral also.

I second this and its is much nicer if the feeder is up wind of the direction you get the most of your wind from. The wind then will push the feed out from shore.

Cheers Don.

It depends on what the goal is in feeding. If you are general purpose feeding (goal to help the BG grow) then the size area depends on how many fish/and what % of their diet comes from pellets. In that situation you want the pellets to spread out enough so that all get to feed. A typical feeder covers a good area for that purpose. One method I use is to let the feeder go off and about 20 seconds later hand throw some food in shallow protected place for small fish to eat.

If you are feeding small pellets for new/yoy fish then feed over areas with thick cover (xmas trees)so that they are protected.

I think you will find out that your fish will learn and adapt. My fish were stocked about 3 weeks ago and they are already lining the bank in the evening waiting for me to come feed them. Some seem to want to eat in 6" of water and some seem to want to eat in 4' deep water. But, I am sure if I only threw it out deeper then they would figure that out and adapt. It is either that or don't eat. I hand feed an area about 30' diameter. If the wind is blowing out I throw more closer to the bank so it will drift out. If the wind is blowing in I throw it as far out as I can get it. That is one of the benefits of hand feeding.

I'm pretty much observing exactly what you described. I love hand feeding. Mom and I spend a big portion of our day in and around the pond. My wife comes down to check on us occasionally, but she isn't as gung-ho as we are. We have chairs, shade and iced tea. What more could a person ask for.

We tend to throw the feed where the fish are. They let us know their location by boiling the water. They seem to get impatient if we don't throw the food quick enough.

Not sure of the size fish. Those numbers came from the guy who runs the pond management business. He is also doing the stocking. I may even be off on my numbers since I can't find the notes I wrote when I talked to him. He also based it on a feeding program. I am trying to maximize the amount of protein I can get from the pond.

If your goal is to raise food for consumption then you need to treat it like a catfish growout pond. Feed a lot and watch water quality.

That is what I am going to try to do. Next step is an aerator. The pond is 1/2 ac and probably 20' at the deepest. All of the banks have a sharp slope for about 5' and then a straight drop off. It took only 3 wks to fill right after Thanksgiving with not a lot of rain. Has a nice green to it. The overflow has not stopped running since it filled. Should be good as long as we don't have a drought like last year.

So, from what I have read so far, I need to aerate and make sure not to over feed.

What else do I need to be aware of?

IMO I would make sure you get pellet trained LMB. Typical recommended stocking ratio of LMB to CNBG is 1 to 30. You are stocking at 1 to 5. IMO your LMB are going to need a LOT of supplemental feeding if you want them to thrive. You should also expect that you will see little to no recruitment from your CNBG and will need to ladder stock larger ones as you harvest them.

Not a pro, just my 1 cent

I will talk to the pond management guy and see what he has to say. I do like to eat BG more than bass, but I don't think that I ever had a pellet raised bass. Just from lakes and old farm ponds.

Also, I just assumed that all of the fish that come from suppliers would be pellet trained. Do they grow them other ways?

There was a discussion on pellet trained fish not long ago and the consensus of the pros was that both pellet trained and non pellet trained fish are still available, depending on the source, but pellet trained seem to be more prevalent. Can't hurt to ask.

There are folks that intentionally let their bass over populate and stunt. I can think of one case where the pondmeister is growing trophy HBG and wants little to no recruitment. All those hungry stunted bass feast on any HBG spawn and serve him well. The difference between his goal and yours is, he doesn't harvest his HBG, he just wants them big. In your case, you want an abundance of CNBG to harvest.

Hopefully, one of the pros will chime in with some thoughts on your 1 to 5 LMB to CNBG stocking ratio if your goal is abundant nice CNBG for harvest.

Find out from your supplier if all of the fish are pellet trained, or just the CNBG.

Feed a good quality food. Feeding food with a lot of filler in it means a lot of extra food ends up in the pond as fish waste. That contributes to algae growth and poor water quality. While good quality food is more expensive per pound than cheaper food, it gives you a better return on fish flesh, so you are growing more fish flesh per $$ spent than with lower quality food.

Feed the largest pellet the fish can eat, and that size will change as the fish grow. Smaller YOY fish need a "hotter" food at first, higher protein and fat, just like "puppy chow" but once the fish get larger, then switch from the crumble/fingerling food to adult food, or you will just be putting a lot of fat on the fish that will end up in the trash can.

A "rule of thumb" I use is look at the fish's eye that I am feeding. The pellets shouldn't be larger than that, with the exception of adult predator fish, such as Bass (LMB/SMB/HSB) Then I will use a larger pellet if available.

Feed what the fish can consume in 15 minutes. Only feed floating food in a pond setting so you can monitor that. Let the fish, your pocketbook and your goals determine how much feed you throw to them on a daily basis. Fish can be fed more than once per day, but still go by the 15 minute rule of thumb. If there is uneaten food after 15 minutes, feed less next time.

I try to feed so the pellets will be pushed by the wind across the pond, I don't like throwing food into the wind where it will be pushed back to shore quickly.

I was going to feed Optimal. I would assume the Optimal Jr to start. Not much info on the website. I guess I will call them. Maybe some bass also?