Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Number of feeders

I read somewhere online that a pond owner had been recommended by a management company to place two feeders at their 2 acre pond. I have a 1.7 acre pond with a Texas Hunter feeder. Is there any reason to have more than one since I can feed year round and at any time from that one feeder?

I think I would use 2. Maybe even more if you can afford it. Think about it. One acre is about the size of a football field. How far do you figure a fish will travel to get food?

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure how far they travel, how far do they travel to get food? I know the catfish travel from one side of the pond, so it seems, to the other as there's a wave of fish that come darting at the feeder all the way from the other end when it goes off so much that it creates a small wave in the water (3 lb channel cats).

Your cats may make that trip, but I bet your have other smaller fish BG and and such that don't dare travel that far for fear of becoming a meal themselves! If you could afford it I would have 2 for sure. One on each end this would also stop some of the bullying going on for food at one feeder!

I don't know how far they will travel. But, when the feeder goes off, walk around the pond tossing out feed. Start at about 75 ft and keep going.

Great tips guys. What's the recommended feeding times and amounts? I've had feeder two years now and have been feeding about 15 seconds in morning and 15 seconds just before sun down (2x/day). I've stopped feeding during winter b/c of little use, or should I feed year round?

Most will tell you here to stop feeding in winter or when the fish stop hitting the feed. They don't need / eat that much in colder months anyway. 15 seconds?? Wow!! That seems like a lot to me but like I said I just started all of this about a month ago myself. I guess if you have a LOT of 3 pound cats they will eat it up I bet? If it were me I would put 2 feeders up and cut your time in half on each one. Do 7 seconds on each and go from there and watch to see if you need to adjust some. The second feeder I would put at like 2 seconds to start as it may take a few day to a week for the fish to find it. Then up it from there. Remember everything I have read out here says its better to underfeed a little then to have left over food in the water messing up your pond. That's just my 2 cents.

Don't feed more than the fish will eat in 10-15 minutes that's the gold standard..

Yeah, they eat it all up in about 5 minutes. Is the gold standard to feed once per day or twice per day or does it matter? And at what time of day? Still trying to determine if I should have cats in there. Threw a plug (top water) in last night and was catching cats one after they other slamming the plug by moonlight.

Catfish, I followed Dave D’s practice of three feeders for a 1.50 – 2.0 acre pond for several years for the same reasons he stated, but as time went by it was difficult to service that many feeders. They were located on the north and south ends of a N-S trending pond, with one in the middle.

Considering our N-S prevailing winds, feed was continually blown into one or the other N/S feeder banks wasting food, except for the center location. Since TH feeders have a larger feed pattern than early feeders, I get a much greater utilization of feed with a central feeder.

I don’t buy into the belief that fishing around feeders’ causes hook shy fish with limited fishing pressure – competition for feed overcomes the problem.

I estimate that feeding AQMX 600 twice daily at 16 seconds is ~5lbs/feed per day.
Sharing 10 years experience – not giving advice.
Hope this helps.
George

Bgk, I have great respect for your well-meaning post but the 10-15 minute rule is nonsense. I have been trying debunk this rule for many years, to no avail..

This week I purposely timed how long it would take my fish to clean up 16 seconds (~2.5 lbs) worth of AQMX 600 - I timed it a 2 minutes and 30 seconds!!!

I then fed ten more seconds of feed and they cleaned it up in less than a minute!

Thanks George, I appreciate it and can believe they do eat it quickly as do mine. You're right the TH feeder does throw it. It can probably reach a 1/3 the distance of my pond. I put the TH on the dam which is the deepest spot. It's also has it's back to the wind so to speak so any wind does carry food a little ways down the pond. The middle location is a good idea though. I'm going to start tagging my fish so should be interesting to see where fish are and where I catch them again at and how their progress goes. Wish I had started my data earlier but am already noticing a huge difference. Just last night saw a huge school of baitfish something that was not there two years ago. I attribute it to my habitat development and feeding program. Cool stuff.