Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding Observation in a New Pond

I read all the information on this site and things I've noticed in our pond. Training the fish with floating fish feed only took about two weeks. We fed where we figured we would and eventually put our dock. I have an automatic fish feeder (nice And I go out there most evenings and throw some more out and just watch them feed sometimes as long as 20 minutes plus. We finally saw what I call the JAWS tidle wave about 2 weeks back...they DO know when you feed them and they come when they hear us walking on the dock around feeding time. We built a pennisula on our pond, I feed on one side and not the other. Interestingly enough in the lat evening when the fish feed, they feed on both sides BUT I know on one side fish are eating other fish and bugs and on my side they are eating the feed I throw. (Now if I can only train them to follow me along the bank!) I worried lots in the beginning about 'am I feeding too much' or 'am I feeding too little'. We are fishing most evenings now (catch and release). Such fun, no regrets.

MarkECIN - Resist the urge to fish too much or too frequently. Your fish can become hook shy or hook smart and you will have difficulty catching the larger fish later on in 3 to 5 yrs. At least in ponds less than 2 acres, the less you fish each year the better the catching becomes whenever you fish.

Hard to resist that urge to go in the late afternoon and throw a line out for 30 minutes or so (sigh!). I'll try, hubby likes to fish the bass fighters too much in his little 'boat'. Fish are running about 7 to 9" bluegill and bass about 10 inches plus and have spawned and had babies. I put some sizeable fish initially and finished up with close to the same this year. So how often would be too much, is say 3 times too many?? Thanks. Dot

Frequency of angling depends on several factors such as pond size, type of baits used, and how well you want the fish to bite whenever you fish. In smaller ponds, the rule I go by is the less the pond is fished better the fish will bite. I personally think that fishing once a month should be okay. Also the length of time spent fishing each time seems to affect catchability. It has been proven that it is best to fish for shorter periods (20-30min) whenever you fish. In my experience with ponds less than one acre, if the pond is only fished 1-3 times a year the fishing remains absolutely great.

I have only been able to fish once a week this year in my 1 acre pond, usually for 1.5 hours. Catch rates for the same bait (worms) HAVE dropped off slightly, even with only this fairly limited use.

Our pond is one acre. Maybe try for once a week-- on weekend as Mark likes the boat-thing. Would it make a difference if we didn't fish the same area, move around the pond, are the fish that smart? I can get by watching the fish (the newly spawned fish just go round and round the edges of the pond and they are so fast. If I walk around the pond you can see ahead of me where they take off as the water surface movement. Really neat.

Fishing frequency - this is an interesting discussion. I've often wondered about this.

Since I don't live at my pond it doesn't get consistent fishing pressure. Last year I was fortunate enough to make it up to my property for one week a month from April through September and then for a few days in December. During each of the weeks that I was there I fish for usually 3 to 4 days (had too many chores to do the other days). So the pond got something like 4 days on and 26 days off of fishing. The fishing was fantastic almost every time.

I do vary my lures quite a bit, mainly because I get bored throwing the same lure over and over (short attention span). In a two to three hour fishing spree I may go from plastic worm, to rooster tail, to Xrap, to surface lure (plastic bumble bee is a favorite), to propeller lizard, to crank or spinner.

My pond is 2.5 to 3 acres with lots of vegetation. So far I haven't noticed any hook shy traits. Once I live on the property I think it would be very difficult to limit my fishing to once a month let alone 2-3 times per year. That would be torture. I'm hoping that the size of my pond won't make that necessary.

If not, dang you think I'm crazy now...........

Allowable fishing frequency also depends on the type of fish. I've read it here many times that HBG will not get hook shy like others. I can attest to that. Sometimes I fish every evening for two weeks straight. On the evenings I might only fish for an hour but then on weekends someone is fishing for 3 to 4 hours each day. I have seen no evidence that the HBG get hook shy at all. Even so the fish don't always bite. There are times when I can fish for hours with no bites. But I noticed when the fish don't bite they also don't take feed very well. When they are feeding well they bite. In my mind this is one huge benefit of HBG. On the other hand, let's talk bass. I've caught each of my bass once and caught one of them twice. That's it. I have never fished exclusively for them but I've spent a lot of time throwing various small jigs and spinner baits with no hits from bass.

This is going to be hard to control my husband, I was out in the front yard doing flower beds (and of course, our rottie "Trump" likes to follow me EVERYWHERE)...so my hubby took advantage of his chance(unknown to me) and went get his pole and was out there fishing! By the time I got to the backyard (with dog) and realized hubby had snuck out house to fish, he'd caught 6 bluegills--- the dog and I ended his 'fun'. We have to tie our dog up to fish as he 'thinks he is supposed to go after the bobber'. I have one more question, my fish aren't eating the fish food since having babies recently, BUT what I do notice and hec if I know what it is...at feeding time there are small circles appearing all over like they're feeding--you think they're feeding at the bottom on other fish "including the babies"???? Up until they had babies, they were always coming to the dock to eat what I threw (or the fish feeder).