I have been watching HSB feeding on fish in two areas of the pond in the mornings and so I thought I would toss out some Cargills Triton 4512 in the 1/4" size and see if I would get any response. And yes I did, they feed freely on the fish food. I have rarely seen the HSB feed on the Cargills at the feeders and when I did, it would be a single fish or two. I think it was because the cnbg feed so strongly at the feeders an would leave little available food for the HSB. The feeder food would be gone in a min or two. The feeders are throwing 1/8 and 1/4" together at a ratio of two to one with the most being the 1/8 sized feed. So, I hand tossed some of the 1/4" as far as I cold throw (which is not that far) and they took to the feed. Not real aggressive but still they ate several handful's. These HSB look to be in the 12 to 17" range but I think there are some maybe in or around 19" in the pond. And, after reading here of the Purena LMB cubes for feeding the lmb, and then looking into the past threads I was wondering if others here found the HSB to eat the larger sized feed? And if so, what sized HSB were needed to feed on the LMB Pellets? My hsb are feeding on the Cargills 1/4" but to get the largest, fastest growth I think the larger pellets would help, if the hsb can eat it. And I will also add that I believe there is a lot of forage fish for the HSB right now. Pond seems to have many Tp of different sizes along with what was a good population of TFS back in March and a good number of cnbg, but I could be short on the smaller sized 2" bg. I don't see as many of them as I did earlier in the spring. I enjoyed feeding the HSB by hand and plan of continuing the hand feeding of some of the HSB, but just thinking larger feed might help to add some more weight to the HSB. Thoughts please.

Following along. I haven't seen a single HSB in my pond since they were stocked almost two years ago. I think I "may" have seen them swimming, but I'm not sure. I may try throwing out some food from the boat, in the center of the pond.
Thx

When my HSB grew to about 10-12 in., EWEST suggested getting some Aquamax LMB food and breaking the pieces in half to be more size appropriate. When they got to about 14" they have no problem with the full size pellets. NOTE that I don't have a feeder for the LMB food so I hand-throw on weekends when at the pond site

SetterGuy, I do feed AM400 and AM600 mixed for the BG and the HSB hang around the feeder most of the time when they are hungry. Good luck finding them!

Dan

I'm feeding a 50/50 mix of Optima BG and Bass foods. Thrown from a automatic feeder at dawn and dusk. The feed disappears in seconds. I don't see the HSB feeding, or my SMB. I've caught a lot of the SMB, but not the HSB. I'm wondering if when they were small, they hung out too near the surface, and the kingfisher picked them all off?

I have been ladder stocking my HSB for the past 2 yrs in a 3 yr old pond. I would add 10 or 20 each fall and spring. Most were in the 10" range when stocked but this past spring I added some larger ones. And like setterguy, I do not see them in any large numbers but I have seen one or two on one occasion at one of the 3 feeders. I think the lack of seeing them was due to the HSB feeding on the large numbers of TFS in the pond, and would see some of the HSB feeding on the TFS early mornings. I have hand feed some this past week when it was cloudy all day due to Harvey storm. They were at or around the surface during the cloudy days. I believe most are now above the 12" mark and was wondering if the 1" sized bass nuggets cold be eaten? I think I could throw it out father into the pond and may see more active feeding on the lmb food? After looking through the past threads, I was not able to find where the lmb nuggets were eaten unless they were broke in half. I would have thought the mouth gape on an 14 to 19" hsb could be eaten.

I only feed whole 1" LMB pellets to the HSB and they make quite a fuss when I hand feed them. There's no mistaking the sight and sound of a HSB eating a pellet off the surface. I have a handful of LMB that also eat the 1" pellets but are much less active when they eat.
Dan

My 17 inch HSB still eat the AM 600 no problems. I would venture to say that a 14 inch HSB may be able to put the 1 inch pellet in its mouth but might still be a bit big for it's throat maybe? I think even my 22, 24 inchers take them from time to time still but they are now eating more BG then anything. Your right though there is no mistaking that chalunge sound when they come up for that pellet and the slap of the tail from time to time. LOL.

RC

My HSB were 10-12 in June, guessing 12-14 now, and they take the Largemouth pellets, as do the several of the bass. I have a couple of bass that I would think have to be some of the orginal F1 that I think are taking pellets as well. Or they could be a northern that is growing REALLY fast I guess. I stocked northerns at 5-7" in June. The bigger LMB looks to be a 2-3# fish.

Very nice... Can someone tell me the order number for the AquaMax largemouth food?? I might actually try some. I remember we used to have a chart but I haven't seen that in a while. Might be in the archives I'll look for it.

Thanks,
RC

RC,
not sure what the "order number" is. I just go to the local farm store than sells Purina and they order it for me.
Dan