I bought thirty feed trained bass last year and put them in my pond. Now when my feeder goes off I am almost certain that more than thirty bass are at the feeder feeding. Is it possible for other bass in the pond to learn from the behavior of these feed trained bass or are feed trained bass only possible if started at birth? Will the feed trained bass have offspring that will feed at the feeder? I wonder too if some of the bass are there just to eat the bluegill that are feeding and not really eating the feed?

Other bass to learn? Absolutely! Other bass can indeed learn by watching that feeding behavior.

My thoughts and experience with feed trained LMB.

Over time many will go off feed and start eating natural forage and still eat some pellets. Some (small % )of non-feed trained LMB will , as a result of competition , start eating pellets. The offspring of both feed trained and non-feed trained LMB may learn to eat pellets but they do so for a shorter time and in smaller %s. This is all subject pond conditions. Ours are very natural and don't contain high fish densities. The smaller the area and the more fish the more competition forces LMB to eat /stay on feed and the higher the % that learn to eat pellets and stay on them.

I have 30-40 LMB eating pellets in my pond and they all learned on their own.

Mine learned on their own also. The BG were great teachers.

I just picked up some Aquamax Largemouth. They are still learning how to deal with such a large pellet. One smack with a hammer and the pellet breaks in two. They seem to be happy with the half size for now. I'll go back to the whole pellet after a bit and see what happens.

Chuck

Chuck...

The LMB can learn just like the BG, but with them being predators, some prefer to eat natural forage instead of pellets. Those fish will probably still come to eat pellets if there isn't enough forage.

ezylman

Just to clarify.....My LMB have been eating Aquamax 600 for a couple years now. I just stepped up to the Largemouth pellets.

I'm guessing maybe a third of them will eat pellets and the rest are perfectly content with the natural forage. Forage base is pretty good. Lots of Regular BG and Golden Shiners of all different sizes are available for those finicky diners .

Chuck...

I gotcha. I guess we could consider your pellet eating bass the lazy ones since they don't want to chase the other fish. However, a lazy animal is a FAT animal. This equals bigger fish.

Theo this is good news to me. I thought I would have to continue to buy bass like I do the hsb in order to keep them on feed. The largest bass I have caught in my pond I don't think were on feed. They were far away from the feeder when I caught them but I don't know if that is because the older bass in my pond were not feed trained or if at a certain age they go off feed. I like fat bass. I had been feeding my fish salmon food with a higher fat content. My fish were getting fatter but I can't get that feed anymore due to the cost of shipping.

I strongly suspect that the hungrier an LMB is, the more likely it will learn to eat pellets or stay on feed. Unfortunately, those with big bass ponds don't want a forage base which keeps their bass hungry, although they might love them to be on feed. And in a big bream pond where we keep the bass hungry, having them eating pellets may not be advantageous to keeping them busy eating small BG (I'm still thinking on that one).

I agree with Theo's thinking. Another way to look at it is that I hate vegetables, but if I am hungry enough, I will eat them. Other people love to eat only vegetables. Some bass may prefer pellets, but you may need to starve the others to get them to eat them. I would be very surprised if all of your LMB would stop eating BG, but with feeding, the ones that prefer pellets would definitely decrease the pressure on the BG when they go after the feeders. The question is would the increase in BG population that would follow be beneficial to the bass that don't eat the pellets. My gut response is yes, because it gives them more available forage.

It's interesting to me that the highest density of BG in my pond is also where I have the highest density of Lmb.

If I were a LMB I would follwo the BG too.

Since I got no love on my post earlier today about lmb self training themselves, I am glad I found this one. I am also concerned for 2 reasons, based on my similar goals as Theo, mainly big BG; the bass are taking away a lot of BG feed, they are also lazy and not doing their due diligence on the bg. I am thinking of borrowing a panty hose pellet fly from George and catching those suckers. I have 75 in less than an acre, lots of several size BG, they just are not getting eaten as I think they should I have 3 ft. visibility so I can see well what all the fish's habits are. Some BG, when stalking the shoreline will stop and nab a floating pellet. I throw some close to shore to pre-occupy the lil fish so they can get slaughtered(yes, sadistic). Other BG will never get out of stalking mode. Some of the lazy, no good, bass will just gobble up the pellets around the pier along with the bluegills and never go after the small bg nibbling at the pellets. It wisses me off. Dont they know they are bass? Is there a name for a mixed up lmb?

How often a day do your feed, burger?

I would make a nice statement about how my self-feed trained bass have kept up sufficient pressure on BG numbers while only being fed once a day, but after the BG selective fishkill I had last Winter it is both a moot point and a conclusion that can't be verified.

I feed 3 to 4 times a day with feeder in spring and fall, 3 times in summer and well, multiple times in winter, but for far less time. I just loaded up feeder with 3/16 since the larger stuff doesnt work too well. I will save the 1/4 and 3/8 for hand feeding when here. I just got 2 bags of 3/16 4612 feed that was made Monday night, bagged Tues. AM. Picked up yesterday PM. How fresh is that? I guess I shouldnt complain, but the bass just seem to take forever stalking in shallows to catch something.
We'll see how things are this fall with a sein haul. We will be fishing out lots of BG probably 4th July. Also some lazy bass after I am convinced they spawned. I havent detected small lmb yet. Probably oo early.

More info on burgermeister's self feed-trained LMB: