Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Help how many fish needed to see activity

2 acre retention pond at least 10 ft deep, stocked 40 bg and 40 HSB all 4-7 in. Late April. There are some 10-14 in lmb in the pond as well. I have not seen or caught any bg in the pond until I stocked in April. I am starting to see some bg fry and of course lmb fry in the shallows. Been feeding 4-5 times a week at the same time for close to 2 months and the only takers have been some grass carp. Been catching and stocking some bigger bg and hbg along with some small gsf to try and get some forage going. My main goal was to get the HSB on feed but no luck. Any ideas to cheaply get the HSB or any fish besides the carp to feed? Thanks

If the fish are used to natural forage, and there is plenty of it in the pond, they won't know what a pellet is. My BG in the pond are very minimal eaters - there's plenty of natural forage in the pond, and the majority of them aren't pellet trained.

I have never seen a pond where BG will not train to eat pellets over time. Even less so with GSF and HBG. Now if LMB predation is bad (bass crowded)then BG will avoid feeders when the LMB are around until they get big enough to avoid LMB predation. Cover in the feeding area will help the BG , GSF and HBG feed but may slow down the HSB.

Our HSB tend to feed less on pellets when it’s hot.

I need to add more cover to the area near the feeder. There are pellet trained LMB in the pond, and you're right, the smaller fish seem to stay away until they are done. Even the SMB/YP in cages near the feeder stop feeding when the larger fish show up to feed on pellets outside of the cages.