Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Hand Feeding? One at a time or Handfulls?

I am new to the fish pond life. Have a 1/6 acre pond. I stocked it last fall with 25 LMB and 50 BG. All about 2-3". The pond already had crayfish, I've seen up to 15 of them with some as big as 5", also have spotted a footlong catfish.

I have started trying to feed the fish. I began at the beginning of April and I was consistent on time and place for about two weeks. The surface water temp was 55-60. They had absolutely no interest. I have recently restarted although more sporatically as I don't want to feed the algae. The fish now seem to be starting to take the pellets.

My question is how should I feed them? Should I get them started by tossing in a pellet at a time or should I toss by the handfull? When I toss one at a time I try to hit the area where they are and they seem to strike rather quick. They don't seem to go after the handfull. Should I do the pellet by pellet method until they get trained and then will I be able to switch to handfulls?

Thanks.

Also have a FA problem which I am attempting to control with barley straw.

Toss it in by the handful. The objective is to feed them, not watch them eat.

Also, get about 200 more bluegills and monitor them. Try to get some larger ones since you already have predators. I expect the bass may have eaten most of what you stocked.

BTW, on my first pond I stocked many times what you stocked. I badly overstocked on catfish and bass and tossed in a about 3 dozen minnows. The results were predictable.

Training fish to eat is a tricky process. I have found to throw small amounts of pellets(10-15) in a spot and wait and see what happens works best. If you see a fish, throw a pellet towards it and see if it will check it out. Some places have fish ready to be fed, some places have fish not concerned about feed.

I too am new to pond management but I stocked my pond in 2002 with BG. I stocked in the fall and did nothing with food until spring. I started as soon as ice out by walking along the edge of the pond tossing in only a pinch at a time of small sinking feed. Didn't want to waste feed and pollute the pond. Eventually I saw fish going after the food. I took note of the 2 or 3 spots where I found the fish and kept putting food there one pinch at a time every day. As the days went on more fish congregated in these areas. Then I just kept this up for the first whole summer. Somewhat lengthy process. My fish started out at about 1.25 inch. By the end of the first summer they were about 2.5 inch. I know I never got food to all the fish since many of these small fish get lost in a relatively big pond with very irregular shape. I would only see 40 or 50 at once of the 1000 I stocked. The remaining fish must have had enough natural food to eat since by following spring I could find 2 to 3 inch fish all over. Feeding was easy after that, they seemed to learn from each other. I begain mixing the smallest floating food in with the sinking food until they figured how to get the floating stuff. Now I can throw floating food anywhere and they come from all over to get it. The floating food is nice cause you can see if they've eaten it all. My fish are now 9 inches long.

BZ, You have identified the right way to train fish. Instead of expecting small fish to swim a long way, take the food to them. Once they get trained and grow, they will travel a reasonable distance. Of interest is that once you get them eating, new YOY will get the idea.