Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feed Training Largemouth Bass Plan

I know there is alot of discussion going around the forum about feed training largemouth bass. Here is my plan and I wonder if it would work. I was hoping to catch 2 to 3 in largemouth with minnow traps. I would then transport them to a shad tank where I would start out feeding them freeze dried krill. Then start feed them Aquamax Fingerling Starter 300 in a week or so. Once they grow I would go to a floating pellet. Would the Fingerling starter be a good feed to train them to? Is there another type of Aquamax that would be better for 2 to 3 inch largemouth?

You could call up one of the hatcheries that sells feed trained bass and see if they would tell you their training program. You could duplicate it, but you'd end up with only the 2-3 LMB eating pellets. If you could get a school of LMB, you could mass train.

Best luck will be with a high density of fish in warm water. You'll have to feed several times a day. An automatic feeder would save you some time. You will also have to keep the tank bottom clean and flow in clean water and allow old water to exit unless your Shad tank is an RAS.

Here's a good publication on the culture of largemouth bass. Feed training is covered a few pages in.

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/CategoryDetails/whichcategory/6/

I've never done it in large numbers but feeding training LMB in an aquarium isn't difficult. Even larger LMB can be trained. LMB relate you as food when you start dumping minnows, shrimp, crayfish etc into the tank. After a while, they'll nail just about anything you put into the tank... So at first I start with tasty items like like minnows or shrimp. Then switch to dead minnows or shrimp. Then freeze dried shrimp. And then eventually pellets... It generally takes a couple months for the progression to happen.

Travis, have you seen them stay feed trained once in a pond?

Dave,
Up here we dont have any problems keeping feed trained bass on feed. We even have native bass feed training themselves with most feeding programs.

Dave,our feed trained LMB have stayed on feed - began feeding next day after stsocking and fed on LM nuggets first day fed.
Probably depends on who and how they were trained.

We have used feed trained LMB from 5 different hatchery sources from 2 inches to 12 inches. While some may still eat a few pellets - none as far as I can tell have stayed on feed. The natural forage is too big of an enticement. I do think a few non-trained LMB have learned to eat pellets but my guess is under 1 %. You would have a better chance of keeping LMB on feed in a pond if you stocked them as young adults that were eating big pellets when you put them in an keep the same routine. A small closed system is different from a pond with lots of forage swimming around.

Eric,

Do you think the size of your pond is a factor on why most of them don't stay on feed? Is it possible since it's so large they disperse more away from your feeder(s)?

The pond these fish are going to be put in is a 1 acre pond. The only other fish that is stocked in the pond is hybrid bluegill.

My experience is like Erics.

Lots of things could make a difference. That would include lake size , fish density , available forage , type of food , and many more.

Something else I learned recently is fish that are feed trained in ponds may not be as voracious pellet feeders as those that are concentrated in tanks due to some natural feed in the ponds. At least this is true with yellow perch.

I figured I may as well weigh in on this topic.

I have pellet trained LMB in my pond. They were stocked in the summer of 2009 at 6"-8". They have been on AM 600 since day one and are the first to show at the dinner table. They have already started feeding pretty aggressively this year. I caught one this year that was 16" and pushing 3 lbs.

My goals are to raise big BG, so pellet trained LMB are not the ideal predator in my pond. I will say that they have grown very quickly and are very healthy fish. I would rather the BG eat the AM 600 and the LMB eat the BG

So, the master plan this year is to allow the LMB to spawn and produce lots of hungry non feed trained LMB babies. Once the spawn is over, I plan to take out the feed trained bass and transfer them to another BOW nearby. The location of their new home will be kept confidential as the owner does not want other PB members to bother him for fishing rights. Plus, I told Scott (esshup) that I would keep it a secret

Sample of what will be evicted this summer:

Beautiful fish. My goal is to grow large BG as well.

I have a good idea what the weights are of the CC that I removed last year, plus the few LMB that I removed this Spring. That'll be a good indicator of how much to put in. Mike, get them going on AquaMax LMB. Less training that I have to do!

Now if you could only catch some of those HSB's that are in your pond....

You give Greg a call about tags yet?

Don't worry Scott, it will be just between us.

BTW, what are your GPS coordinates?

Scott,

Will trade 4lb bass for tags

Okay Dave, now you have me thinking....

Could a make a little extra coin by selling 3-4lb feed trained LMB or the coordinates to a pond where they are stocked?????

Hmmmmmmmmm

Same with LMB.

Very expensive to raise LMB that big and feed trained and sell them at a profit.

If you try the second part I suggest Kevlar and a very good attorney.

If you get into Scotts water hole, you won't need an Attorney and the kevlar won't do much good.

I've only done it with a couple dozen bass and of those only about half were released into an earthen pond. It was only a 1/4 acre and devoid of forage so they stayed on the pellets quite easily. The others were kept in small lined back yard ponds and stayed on pellets as well.

I am pondering feed training my own SMB if I cannot find feed trained SMB locally. They will go into a 0.4 acre pond so we will see how that goes.

Maybe the natural feeding instinct is stronger in trout, both of the hatcheries that I've gotten Rainbow and Tiger trout have raised them in tanks on pellets. After stocking in a few days their intake of pellets is reduced quite a bit and they stay largely on natural forage.
Four years ago which was the first year I stocked trout they stayed mostly on pellets, each year since as my forage base grew they consumed less pellets.

Eric,

Not trying to disagree but could you expound on that? In my small .62 acre pond I had up to 400 bass at one time up to almost 6 lbs. on feed, and at the market rates I could have made a profit for remedial fish or the Asian Market (for the ones in the 2 lb. range).

At a conversion rate of 2:1 and $10.00 per pound I wouldn't think it would be a losing proposition.

I sold them for much more to the taxidermy market but that doesn't count.