I feed once per day, tractor supply multi species.

Caught a few BG for the skillet on Saturday. My fillet skills were rusty and I punctured the stomach of the first victim...it stunk! Not as bad as roadkill in the sun, but it was enough to turn my head away. Obviously pellet food.

I was very surprised by the decay/rotten smell. Is this normal?

I checked three fish and it was the same in all of them.
Water testing shows zero levels of ammonia,N & N.
Over all health looks great.

Should I try better feed or just roll with it? The offending odor was definitely coming from the brown paste in the stomach.

I held off eating them. If the flesh tastes the least bit like rotten pellets then I have a problem.

I've always found bluegill guts to be quite a bit stinkier than other fish. But perhaps the fish food it taking it to another level. If it taints the meat (probably not?) perhaps you will need to build a fish basket to put live fish in for a few days without food before cleaning them.

That is an interesting observation Clay. I have never noticed any terribly unusual smell and I often cut the carcas in three pieces to feed the CC after filleting. But my sensory of what smells bad may be different than yours.

I have been concerned before about bluegreen algae tainting the meat but we have fillet'd litteraly hundreds of BG and have never noticed any off flavor from anything so far. I feed almost daily and the stomach contents when I see them almost always has brown feed.

Yes bg stomach contents always smell very, very bad - feed fed or not. IDK of any animal that has pleasant smelling entrails, however.

i feed aquamax 4 times a day, i have gotten a pretty strong whiff before also. i didn't directly relate it to the pellets, but may well have been the feed. if i ever notice a strong "pondy" smell near my pond, i do not eat the fish for a while. at my old pond and here at the new one i have had a few occasions the bg taste bad. i believe that pondy smell is when the plankton dies. last year my water got a real gray look and had a strong smell.

Strangly enough just yesterday I accidentaly spilled a bucket of feed in my rock driveway and was able to pick it all up except about a pound that fell between rocks. You might guess it rained about an hour later. I was blown away how soured and nasty smelling that wet feed was after only about 2 hours!!! We used to sour maze or grain for baiting catfish holes and that is what this smelled like except it took several days to get the grain to smell that bad. Not 1 or 2 hours. I imagine that fish food still being wet in a fishes belly would smell just as bad!! Just never expected it that quick. Just my observation.

its already soured during (before really) manufacture, its just dehydrated a bit so it doesn't smell as strong.

Makes sense Mat. It still smells everytime I walk by that spot in my rock driveway. Naturally when you wish a possum or raccoon would drop by...they never do!!

I wonder if the feed you use is harder to digest for BG than higher protein stuff. If so, it might take longer to break down in their stomach, resulting in smellier belly contents.

It's listed as 36% protein.
I heard tractor supply multi species is made from chicken feathers...not sure if that's true or not.
Compared to other brands, it is certainly inexpensive.

I've tried it and the fish didn't seem to do near as well as when I spent more $$$.

Double D, fish and women have a couple of shared traits. Both like to be spoiled. Both require a constant supply of pre-prepared food. Both require mucho money. Won't even bring up the smell. The sad part is ya can't do with or without em!
I do believe that it is better in the long run to aquire either as already trained.

Hahahahahahahahaha!