I have a 1/3 acre pond that is about 14 yrs old with about 15-20 lg mouth bass, some are up to 3 lbs and a few small bass that survived from babies. There is little to no vegetation as I control the growth of it and I have a bubbler so the water is crystal clear. I have always feed the bass with minnows (usually about 2 lb of them every 2-3 wks). They just go crazy when I feed them. I have decided to use Purina game chow pellets since minnows were getting expensive. I have tried feeding the same time each day now for about 4 days, but the bass do not seem to want to eat it. By the way, I broadcast into the sides of my pond barley pellets to control algae about twice a summer which look about like the game chow pellets. Is that why the bass won't eat the pellets? If anyone has any suggestions on how to get the bass to eat the pellets, please let me know. Maybe they will never eat the pellets since they always ate minnows. Thank you.
Maybe they will never eat the pellets since they always ate minnows. Thank you.
Bobcat, welcome to the forum. Your last sentence is probably the reason. If you want to try and get a few LMB that are pellet trained, I think Jones Fish in Ohio might have them. I purchased a few from them last year. LMB normally don't switch from live food to pellets; usually it's the other way around.
Tell us more about your pond. What other fish are in there?
Are there any other fish in the pond?
If not, you could just stock adult Bluegill. They'll eat the pellets, and the LMB will eat young BG.
Generally large mouth bass have to be trained to eat pellets from birth and the ones that are pellet trained prefer the aquamax 600 or other fish meal based pellets.
If you want numerous LMB that readily feed on pellets then the best and quickest way is to regularly each year for several years remove some bass by catching them with minnows. Then replace those bass with hatchery raised pellet trained bass. This way you gradually replace your fish eating bass with pellet eating bass. A few fish farms in Ohio have pellet trained bass. What part of Ohio do you live which would indicate the closest hatchery to you with pellet trained bass? As suggested by J.Holt, if you want bass to readily eat pellets then you should use fish meal based higher protein food such as Aquamax Carnivore diet and not Game fish Chow which is for BG, catfish, tilapia, and etc. All pellet trained bass are raised on the high protein diets and usually will not eat the Game fish Chow very well, if at all.
We have farms out here that have 100% pellet trained LMB. They are raised for food fish for the Asian market. They frenzy when the feeders come on. No one uses Purina, especially game chow. They mostly use EWOS floating salmon, good size pellets. I think it is around 41% protein, and sometimes they feed them EWOS boost, before trucking.
Your lmb are probably lost causes for pellets. It is very difficult to get them to go from minnows to pellets. Not so hard vice versa. I agree with Cody, better get some new pellet trained candidates. But they have to be big enough not to become food themselves. I just caught a 5 lb on a 5 incher. Just a big minnow to them. I don;t know how large these fish would go on pellets, because all of them are market bound in 18 months, and look like footballs. All girth, no head or tail size. $6 a lb wholesale, $8 retail.
