Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding 100 and one fish feeding questions

1) First of all how large of an area will a feeder service.
2) How many #'s of food do you use/ week.
3) Dangerous to assume but I'd assume you feed at water temps of 60 and higher.

I have plenty of other questions but I need to see if theis practical. I'm dealing with three ponds and 70 acres of water. Thanks.

Brown Lab:

(Moderator's Note: I edited the above to stick in #s.)

1) Sorry, dedicated hand feeder with only 0.9 acre of water here. :rolleyes:

2) Bruce Condello did a nice job of figuring this out based on the # of fish feeding and % of body weight for Jody Doles about 3 months ago. I will try to find it later if no one else does.

3) It depends on the species, but for a rule of thumb 60+ is a good figure. I will give my experience on feeding temps. CC feed very little under 60 degrees. BG and LMB will feed down to about 55. GSH will eat on the surface virtually anytime it's not frozen. george and other Texans report HSB feed down to maybe 50, but below maybe 60 they only eat well on nice, sunny days when the weather is improving. BG and LMB act the same for me below 60, too.

Hey Bruce - I can't find the post where you ran thru the math for calculating feed consumption.

Do you know where it is, or can you recreate the dialectic for the record? It's archiveable material.

Was it Jody Doles, or somebody else? I just looked through all of Jody's posts and I couldn't find anything I said. I remember the post vaguely.

Something about taking the number of feeding fish you have in the pond, then multiplying by average size to yield a total biomass. At this point you would use a conservative number of 1% of body weight to equal feed weight, or a more liberal number of 3%. You'll find that if you take the highs and lows of fish numbers, fish weight, and 1 or 3 percent you can get a widely divergent number for feed consumption.

I know I've mentioned this before, but in the movie "Old School", Will Ferrel gives a speech in a debate tournament. It's awesome, but two seconds later he has no idea what he just said...

I thought it was Jody, but I couldn't find it in any of his posts either.

? Search rookies. :p See if any of these are what you are looking for. I think Bruce may have deleted the info. Bruce did you find your tables on BG Wr. If its the same one you sent me I can send it back tonight. Its about key words to look for. If these are not the right one let me know. It might be easier to find the data elsewhere .

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001816;p=11

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000552

Oh Great Search Master, neither one of those is it. Maybe Bruce can find a slow day when the patients and the fish aren't biting and do a nice archive thread, but (as Bruce reminded me) given all the unknowns and variables involved it is useful as a "roughly how much feed will I need" tool. If the exact number and size of stocked fish to be fed is known, it would give much more precise data.

"Feed what the fish will eat in 10-15 minutes" always works.

So, Brown Lab, for #2, "Feed what the fish will eat in 10-15 minutes." With 70 acres and multiple feeders, you're either going to be feeding per a budget OR buying feed multiple times per season. How does this sound: Buy the smallest amount of feed that let's you get a price break (if available, or just get 500 lbs.) and set each feeder for a small amount (5 lbs?) per day. Observe what the fish eat and adjust accordingly.

BTW, you can make me watch Will Ferrel, but don't throw me into that briar patch.

I thought pg 13 -15 of the first link are what you were looking for. That is what Bruce described.

Don't have a clue where I heard this but the general rule of thumb we use is 1 feeder per 5 acres of water but then again maybe that is just what us old snake oil salesman use to sell more feeders!!!! I actually would like to know if there is any validity to that though!

I recommend one feeder for every three acres. Fish will average consuming 3% of their body weight of feed daily, over a 200-250 day growing season. Some days they eat more, some days they eat less.
If you feed 3 pounds of feed per acre to fish which convert at 2 to 1, that means you will feed 600-750 pounds of feed per acre per year. That extrapolates to 300-375 additional pounds of fish per acre per year. Cost is about $180-250.00 per year for feed, if you are "supplementing" your fish population.
A mature fish population will eat much more feed than 3-5 pounds per acre per day, but you don't need to feed any more than that unless you have a specific reason.
In regard to temperature, some fish, such as bluegill, will feed well into the mid-40's and most warm water fish tone their feeding down when the temperature rises into the upper 80's and 90's.
Now, with that advice, use it as you wish. I have seen 70 acre lakes with two feeders feeding localized populations of fish. The feeder's job there is to attract fish for people to catch and to see more than to actually grow more fish.
Tell me more about your goals in NC and what you are doing. I go to the Raleigh area once a month, heading to Laurinburg.

We have two feeders on less than 2 acres.
IMO it avoids congregating fish in one area of the pond?

Thanks for the advice Bob,

The goals for the pond are to enhance the fishery for brim with the payoff being a increase in the quality of the bass population.

I aquired this property less than two years ago. The ponds are essentially in the same conditionas when I originally purchased them. My time and resources have been spent on the construction of a weekend cabin (now finished), roads and a shelter. Other than the construction of concrete ramps and a few brush piles the ponds are unchanged.

The ponds are the result of aggregate mining. The main pond is composed of a dozen or so interconnecting canals that vary from 50 to 75 yards in width are 200 to 400 yards in length. To get a mental picture if you have ever fished the big lake at Bienville plantation the topography is similar. The lakes are approximately 20 years old. The bank is covered in lilly pads. The depth of the canals vary from 5' to 15' Structure is abundent, cover other than the lilly is minimal. The pond are clear although, we finally got a naturally occuring algae bloom 2 weeks ago. The size of the lake is 42 acres, however approx 30% of that area is land and islands that seperates the canals.

The other pond is more traditional in form,approx 25 acres it has flats and a short creek arm, underwater humps and less deep water. Once again good structure minimal cover, no lilly pads. But it does have slender naid. Bass and green sunfish for sure I suspect crappie and cats, but haven't taken the time to fish.

The last pond is ultra shallow 4-5' loads of five year old cypress trees and slender naid and a few lilly pad. No structure loads of cover when the trees mature. Small bass and better brim maybe 8 to 9 acres. This pond is used primarily for dog training.

At present the bass population is healthy in #'s and quality. The brim population is lacking in all ponds but the cypress pond. The only brim I've seen caught have been green sunfish no blue brim or redear. The catch rate is such that I can usually catch more bass on artificials than my wife can catch brim with crickets or worms. In my mind she should be catching 5 brim to every bass I catch.

I no this is a sin on this board but I haven't checked my alkalinity, although I ASSume it to be low. The cost involved in liming and fertilizing I beleive would be prohibitive. Feeders and some additional stocking would appear to be amore viable alternative.

The ponds are located near Laurinburg. In Bennettsville, SC approx 30 miles form Laurinburg. Please feel free to e-mail me a professional consult may be just what I need.