Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding What is your monthly feeding rate?

A recent post by Aaron M has got me wondering how we all compare in feeding rates. I know we have done feeding surveys before but I want to start one where everyone gives their feed rate in comparable units. We all have different sized ponds and variable length growing seasons so I want members to give their feed rate in terms of lbs per month per acre during the feeding season. This will get everyone on the same level regardless of how big your pond is or how many months you can feed. (Of course what types of fish you have can greatly effect feeding but there isn't a way to put that in the equation.) Anyhow take your yearly food consumption divided by how many months you feed divided by the size of you pond (in decimal form).

For example at my folks 0.33 acre pond we feed from about April through October and use around 100 lbs a year. So 100lbs divided by 7 months divided by 0.33 acre = a feed rate of 43.3lbs per acre per month. I think this is lower than most of you (esp Aaron) but that is why I want to start the thread. If we get lots of people to post we could come up with a PondBoss average and link this thread when new members join and ask about how much to feed.

Man I love this forum. DJT your post is a bean counters dream come true. Oh and just so you know, I'm not mocking you, I think this is a great idea. Of course Theo is probably going to muck this formula up by throwing in an azimuth calculation or something.

Do the math for me Jeff!

200 lbs feed in 1.5 acre pond in 4 months.

200/4 x 2/3 = 33.3#A

About 6 bags in 3 months (almost 3 bags in the past month).

So for Q1,
Total feed about 300#
Average 2 bags a month = 100#/mo
Size = about .2 acres (probably a little less)
Rate = 500#/ac/mo

Almost all Aquamax 600.

I feed AM 600 at about #35/ac/mo.

I have a little over 2 acre pond and in the summer I feed around 3 plus bags a week. Since I lost about 35 large cat fish this could be reduced.

AQMX 600 ~75#/acre/month for peak months,

Great question, DJT. Checking my records, I was actually surprised that my feeding season last over 6 months every year, and that I'd better get a couple bags of feed in the next week to get started on time (I may actually be late this year, if my new YP eat earlier than the BG/LMB/CC).

Anyway, for2007 (the last year I can remember exactly how much feed I bought),, I fed 150 pounds of GFC and 150 pounds of Aquamax 600 in 0.9 acre. Figuring an effective 6 month long feeding season (it's more like 6.5 months, but they feed not so much at either end), I fed 55.6 pounds/acre/month.


That's Latitude, Bean Counter.

What does a 50 lb bag of Aquamax run?

$25.24 including the sales tax (7%) 500 and 600 was the same price.

About $36 here last year. Don't know the '09 price yet.

Interesting how the price varies so much from location to location.

That price is current as of Thursday, when I picked up the food.

Lets hear it guys! I know more of you folks are feeding than that.

I think the price variations in AquaMax are likely due to transportation costs. Whether on a dedicated truck or via carrier shipping a 50 pound bag, or a pallet or truckload of them is expensive.

I bought 400 and 500 size last week at $23.95. My feed store is located about a mile from a Purina mill and I'd guess not much in shipping costs is built in.

Bing

DJT, its a new growing season. Maybe folks dont remember or dont want to post last years usage. I hope to get my HSB to feed this year. I have some 3/8 inch ready for them.

1 acre pond 100# per month

GFC = $ 18.25 A bag
AM price differs on size 300 is more than 400 which is more than 500 , last price on AM 500 was $ 29

Averaging 2 bags of GFC and 1 AM 500 per week total for 3 ponds totaling 35 acres . That will slow down as it gets real hot then pick up about 9-15 for a mth and then slow as water cools. Feed from March - Oct +-.

I'll venture a guess at100 lbs a month for a 3/4 acre pond.Maybe a little more,I just dont pay enough attention.Speaking of which,let me go throw 2-3 lbs of food in the pond.Until they settle into rutine,I feed by hand,and throw out according to how thier feeding day by day.

40 lbs per month x 6 months = 240 lbs per year in a 0.8 acre pond.

240 pounds per year/0.8 acres/6 months = 50 pounds per acre

I feel like a real slacker.

I lied earlier with the 35#/acre/month. It is more like 60#?acre/month. I start feeding early March and go through October.

FYI I think most of your ponds are smaller but on bigger lakes the #/acre/month is no where near this high. No reason to feel like a slacker catmando. We probably avg 25lbs on the high end for our 5+ acre ponds.

I fed more agressively this year, which was my first since moving to the homeplace, and doubled the feed rate to 86 lb/ac/month of aquamax. Anyone else keep track?

Man, I feel like I'm starving my fish..(1/2 acre pond) 50 pounds is lasting me from April to Oct. with a few pounds left... But I also throw a few lbs of FHM in the spring and a few lbs in the fall...

I have noticed that when using a better fish food with a higher percentage of protein that we all seem to use less feed. Now if I am correct I could go to a food with higher percentage and use less food and probably save money. That really sounds good to me. This is a very good topic. thanks

This is about the same amount so far this year. Feed March to November. This tread will help me in knowing wahat other are doing. Really first feeding seasion.

I have increased my feed rate to 400# a month on twelve acres and am planning on increasing it again when my two new sweeny feeders arrive at the end of this month. This is probably double what I was feeding last year. Bruce told me my fish looked thin. That comes to 33# per acre a month. So last year I was probably feeding 15pounds per acre.

5000 lbs from april to october of 2009 on 33 acre lake.
That will double in 2010 with the addition of a few more feeders and tons more feed trained fish.

200 lbs per month in a 6 acre pond. 2 feeders and I fill them up every 2 weeks.

I think I'm at about 120#/acre/mo at peak since I feed about a bag and a half by hand during a few months in summer in my half acre pond. I feed lower rates in the spring and late fall. I did the Moutrie feeder deal so I'm in the process of figuring out how often/when and how much to feed. I'll be down at the pond daily to throw out some Largemouth pellets but the feeder won't give me the opportunity to see how well they're eating.

I now have my two new sweeny feeders from Greg Grimes set up and running. I would highly recommend the dock legs to go with the feeders even if you are not going to put it on a dock just because of the height they add to the feeder. Having the feeder higher off of the ground increases the distance it throws the food by about two or three feet. I have now increased my rate of feed to 200 pounds per week which is much higher than last year. I would like to increase my rate even higher but am concerned with water quality and the price of fish food. I have increased my feeding rate in response to this post and Bruce telling me my fish were thin. I just discovered a new problem after I installed one of the new feeders. It appears that the channel catfish spawned again last year and I have hundreds of one year old catfish at the new feeder. I wanted to feed bass and bluegill not a hoard of catfish. Have any of you had success at removing catfish. I have been removing about fifty pounds a week and thought i was making progress until I saw all of the new ones.

My feeding rate varies depending on what species I'm raising, and what size they are in my four ponds. It changes from year to year.

I'm presently feeding a bag of AM500 & AM600 mixed together per month in my .62 acre all male bluegill, all female perch, and approximately 200 6 to 8 inch smallmouth bass pond & .10 acre broodfish holding pond. The other two ponds are just starting to produce fry so they don't really count. So I guess the two pounds combined at .72 acres comes to 139 lbs. per acre.

Cecil how do you keep your water quality in good shape feeding at such a high rate?

I think the diffusers help a lot and I'm sure the Chara and Sago Pondweed also take up ammonia from the water. Hence why I have so many weeds! I'm also using Aquashade in both ponds which should suppress an out of control algae bloom. And I only feed once per day.

In aquaculture the upper limit is supposed to be 30 lbs. per acre per day with aeration. That comes to 900 lbs. per acre per month!

Cecil is that with some type of water exchange or is that just with aeration?

If you mean the rate I quoted for aquaculture -- no water exchange -- but they are usually shallow ponds with significant surface aeration. On the top end as in large catfish ponds up to 20 acres you can bet they are also constantly monitoring oxygen, and have emergency aeration on hand if needed.

I've been on an "extended work week" schedule for the last 11 months, which has really limited my life and my pond management activities. For much of last summer, and all of this spring, I've mostly been feeding only on Friday and Saturday evenings when the water temperature has been above about 60 degrees.

The 150 lbs. of feed I was using two seasons ago for my approximate 0.7 acre pond, has dropped to about 30 lbs. per season now -- and I can see a really big difference. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, I can post what has happened. From what I'm seeing, in just one season, my average bluegill catch has dropped from over 9-inches per fishing session, to about 7-inches per fishing session.

During the most recent spawning, the males I was catching averaged about 7 inches, rather than over 10 inches last year. I still have a number of large bluegill in the pond, but they seem to have become a very distinct minority.

I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but the ratio of small to large bluegills sure seems to be related to my big cutbacks in my feeding activities.

Good thread. Lets us see year to year changes as well as pond to pond.

For 2010 March thru Nov - true supplemental feeding rates vary over time and location.

97 lbs of GFC per acre
9.25 lbs of AM per acre
2.5 lbs AM-LMB per acre (only 1 location on this for the HSB )

I've only been feeding now for 6 months. During the summer months, 2 pounds per day. During the winter, about a 1 pound 2-3 times a week depending on weather. We have stocked 450 CC in our 2 acre pond. I realize they aren't going to get big fast with that small amount of feed. I feed by hand in the same spot.

I just wanted to give this old thread a bump. As a new member who is trying to find info on the long term cost of pond ownership this thread is very helpful. I had been looking for a feed cost per acre for a while before I came across this.

I feed about 8 months per year total at about 3 pounds per acre per day. I used to feed 5# but was pressuring water quality so cut back.

My fish would readily eat more if I fed it.

I feed 3 times per day , 15 seconds per time. Not sure what amt. or cost that is.

What is the consensus on feeding rates for large ponds? Personally thinking about 66 acres with around 50% shallow "panfish" water. Some of the numbers here are scaring me!

You do not have to feed the whole lake. Just set up one to five feeders in strategic locations and feed specific areas of the lake. I don't use a feeder but the guys that do can give you an idea of how much feed they run through each feeder per year.

You might want to start out with one or two and see how it goes, depending on the speed you want to advance the fish growth in your lake. If you want to push the whole lake to growth limits, probably best to get a pro out to do an eveluation and come up with a solid plan. The professional likely will save you money overall and heartache avoiding big mistakes. A BOW that size, mistakes can get expensive. The cost of a consultation, if you want to push the growth limits, would be money well spent.

I have heard Bill Cody say that anything over ten pounds per acre per day is asking for water quality problems.

On 66 acres that is over a ton of feed every 4 days. Better have deep pockets and lots of spare time to fill feeders. And probably a bulk bin to have feed delivered by semi load. Or even half that a ton of feed a week.

Or you can feed selectively and less.

With 66 acres of water you may not or should not have to feed pellets to grow big or quality fish. This is a very good topic and lesson for forum discussion.
Two items of several things or topics have a big influence here.

1. Pond fertility. Even with infertile water, thus clear water (vis 4-6ft), 66 acres can grow a lot of total fish poundage when the system is functioning at carrying capacity. With some increased alkalinity / fertility / plankton the fish poundage will be even higher. If the poundage of fish is harvested and managed correctly one should be able to skew the sizes / community toward large individuals without pellets. Fish poundage (carrying capacity -standing crop) due to natural fertility ranges from a low of about 50 total fish pounds per ac in clean clear low alkalinity water to a high or around 450 lbs/ac in high alkalinity (90-180 mg/L) limestone soil based ponds. These total account for or encompass about 10 times more forage fish pounds than sportfish pounds a typical 'natural' forage to predator balance.

For our 66 North Carolina clear water acres, lets assume 130 total fish pounds per acre (8500 lbs / 66 ac); 13-15 lbs/ac will be predator pounds and 115-117 lbs should be forage - panfish. If there are 14 lbs of bass /ac then the 66 ac has 924 lbs of bass. If 25% of the bass should be harvested each year to produce overall larger bass there needs to be 231 lbs of bass removed each year to achieve the "goals" of larger bass with natural foods only management. Ideally there should be some panfish also removed each year and this will take additional time / effort. Is the owner up to this challenge and does he have time and resources to do MORE if the pond becomes more fertile?

2. Adding pellets without proper harvest / management will just result in more fish but not necessarily larger average fish. Increasing the carrying capacity by feeding, fertilizing, or increasing the alkalinity means harvesting more fish to achieve goals of larger fish. Is this a management method / effort you have time and ability to achieve beyond the current status of the 66 acres?

My point is manage the 66 acres properly and it will produce lots of high quality fish without feeding pellets or increasing fertility.

My question for the fishery experts is: Will larger sized fish be able to be produced if the system has low or high fertility? Managed properly which system will produce or is capable of producing the largest fish?

My pond is 2 acres and I feed 50 pounds about every 3 weeks. Probably feed 48 weeks a year. Maybe around 15 bags a year at about $32 a bag. I know I spend between $500-$600 a year on just feed for 2 acre pond. My aeriation costs me $30 a month to operate and will run at least 9-10 months a year. So I spend about $1000 a year to have fish in my back yard!! But I love it!! Hope that helps Brad C.

Awesome info Bill.

I spoke with the owner about harvest rates last week and mentioned that it was going to be a big job to keep the pond numbers in check once we get to that point. I didn't know the exact numbers but it makes sense that the more you feed, the higher the lake capacity, the higher the harvest required. 200+ pounds of bass in the under 14" range is a lot of fish! There will be a decent size group of good anglers to help with this so I think we are up to the challenge. We are already thinking ahead about how to manage the recording of fish removed and we haven't stocked it yet. We are waiting on warmer weather to get the electrofishing done and get the right stocking plan laid out. And also working on the structure - of which there is none at the moment.

That brings up another point I think Bill made in another thread - importance of structure. I know this is a big deal but how does it play into the feeding/fertility/fish size ratio? Right now the pond seems to have an over abundance of 2"-3" GSF. I'm assuming low carrying capacity due to clear water and very little vegetation growth. We have caught a few big GSF but no real presence of predators. Would adding feed to this senario without adding structure or predators only result in more small GSF? Clearly that will not be our path but just for info sake.

Shrub,
We definitely do not have the funds to feed to the tune of a ton a week. We are also not trying to keep up with the King Fisher Society either! We will discuss feeding with the experts when they come out for the evaluation. I doubt we will be able to put in enough CNBG to stock 66 acres at one pop so I suspect feeding some amount could help boost spawning/growth to get our forage numbers up. I'm expecting to work out a multi year stocking plan and it will be interesting to see what is said about reaching our goals with or without feeding. Of course as soon as I get those results and recommendations, you guys will be informed.

Also interested in Bill's last question.

To feed or not to feed....that is the question!

My ton of feed example was kind of tongue in cheek. I did not figure you would be up to that, plus it likely might create more problems than it solved.

But you were not getting many replies, and I knew by giving some bad examples that would shake the tree and get some of the guys thinking about it who could actually help.

From my perspective, and it is from a novice perspective that has had NO experience managing a BOW that size, I would want to put out one feeder, after you have stocked the pond, in a strategic location just as an experiment if nothing else. Set a modest amount of feed a couple times a day and just monitor results. But that is just me. I enjoy hand feeding my fish about as much as I do fishing for them.

One method used on large lakes for fishing improvement is to feed in only 1 or 2 protected areas (like a dock or thick cover area). The fish in that area will be better conditioned and you will find bigger LMB hanging around. You can on occasion fish those areas for big BG or big LMB.

Note "fishing improvement". This will not alleviate the issues Bill noted about whole lake population structure.

Here is an example of a 3.5 yr old 10 lb. LMB caught in such a situation limited feeding on 15 acre lake (around feeder).

Ewest,
That is a healthy fish! Thanks for the info. That is a perfect example of targeted feed and habitat. I'm assuming this is what we will need to focus on and I'm going to look over my structure plan again with this in mind. I will be in open water so I will have to create the cover around the feeder. Would you put thick cover -like Christmas trees- around the feeder? Or would you suggest more open cover -like honey hole shrubs?

Snrub,
I had the same thoughts as you and added one feeder last fall. Just curious to see what happened with the existing fish - GSF. I didnt get to spend much time there after loading the feeder so I didnt see the reaction. That was really feeding without a goal - aka uneducated feeding. I'm trying to change that now and really understand where, why, and when to feed to improve the fish and fishing.

And thanks for shaking the tree!

In this case there was shallow water (3 ft deep) in front of the feeder near a quick drop off into deeper water. Just in front of the feeder there was thick brush/xmas trees just before the drop to deep water. About 25 feet out in the deep water there was a post with top to bottom cover tied to the post. A few xmas trees and big limb branches and some thin brush as well. On the side near the boat (grass/weeds in pic) is the dam and the feeder is about 25 feet to the left of the boat.

a 10 lb'er in 3.5 yrs was my goal but I am not there yet lol. That is a NICE LMB

Now THAT is good information Eric. Thanks.

Since my "RES only" pond with intentionally almost no cover (so the large RES would control the spawned population) has transitioned to a RES and SMB pond, I have been contemplating over winter what I want to do about putting in some cover now for the fry.

I like what you described.

Gang,

I feed once a day for 15 seconds on a new 1.5 acres of WE, SMB & RBT with a Texas Feeder and a pound by hand in the existing 1/2 acre LMB CC pond. It took me over 4 mos to train the older BG to pellet food. The RBT as you know are piggies. I did have great recorded RBT growth from Nov 17' put-in thru Jan '18. The RBT were 1/2# but have been ice fish harvesting them at 1.0# to 1.2#.

They all got a shot of 8,000 minnows at put in to give them all a winter boost. I'm pretty happy so far but am really looking forward to spring catches to test growth figures and restart feeding once we ice out and they are willing to eat. I agree with John, I love feeding them nearly as much as catching.

Mr. Don
Northeast Ohio Newbie

I'm surprised your BG took that long to train. Although come to think of it I see mostly mid size and smaller when feeding so not actually sure my large BG are still feeding or not. The bigger ones tend to be out in deeper water where they are harder to see.

I can't wait till spring to see if I can get the SMB feeding. They were raised with feed, but stocking them so late in the season it will be at least 3 months without feed. Mr Hartly that delivered them talked like it would be no problem. Surprisingly they feed sinking feed. He said put a pile of it off shore and they would find it. He said in a short time there would be a ball of fish around it.

Hard to find high protein sinking though without special ordering it. His feed mill makes it for him. I may presoak some MVP so it will sink to get them started and transition them to floating.

John,
I was surprised it took that long to train the BG too. I thought I was doing something wrong but they slowly started feeding. I bought the property with an existing pond that was never managed in any way so I didn't really know what to expect. Even then I was only able to get them to take about a pound a day in a 20 minute feeding session (1/2 acre.) I did see small to moderate sized coming up and threw food to the deep end to try to get the bigger BGs to get motivated to feed.

I also have SMB to feed that were stocked last fall @ 5 to 8". I'll pre-soak some floating high protein too and hopefully that'll do well. I've got walleye that will not likely feed train but it would be nice. Any idea if perch are top feeders for pellet food? They were put in the fall but never showed interest in the food. Maybe because they just aren't interested or it was just too cold in November when they were put in.

Mr. Don

My recreational hand feeding seems to produce different results from the norm. In the warmer months, a few of the GSF and trout come to the surface for Optimal BG. I've haven't identified any BG nor YP rising to the top. Perch that I've fileted after I've tossed pellets have full bellies of fish food. It's likely they are eating Optimal that has drifted down to them. I've yet to catch a BG with any pellets in its gut.
This is after 4 years of hand feeding. The first year I fed AM 600, the next two years Skretting, and this last season Optimal. The GSF didn't start on top until I was tossing Optimal. The trout never cared what was coming their way; they ate it all.
When patches of open water are available in winter, I'll throw out a small amount of Optimal. I don't see any rises; I'm hoping at least the perch are getting the sinkers.
What's with my BG not eating pellets!!!?