Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Am I missing something?

I have started a feeding program for my pond which has LMB, BG, CCat. Today was just the first time I fed and only the few catfish in the pond responded. The BG would investigate the food but not eat it and saw no bass at all. Does it just take a while for the fish to recognize this is food or will they not eat it? Any ideas? I am feeding MFM fish food floating pelets.

How big is your pond, and are you feeding in one spot or walking around it?
It shouldn't take too long. The BG & CC should respond w/in about a week, but
the LMB could take a while - if ever.

I find feeding in the same spot the first year then slowly moving around helps them to get aggresive when it come to following you around the pond. This encourages fish that were not feeding to get the idea of food without much work. When I start small BG in my tanks I find they start feeding on AquaMax Carnivore the best. I mix in in AquaMax GameChow as they grow.

It does take time, be patient! You might try hydrating the feed also, it sometimes helps.

Thanks for the tips. I did walk around the pond hand throwing the feed I am working on setting up a automatic feederand will upgrade to AQUMAX at that time. Pond is about 1.5 full as water level sits now I would say 3/4 acre. Does it make a difference what time of day I feed?

I don't think time of day matters much but I've found that the fish in my pond will feed better if the feeding area is not in direct sunlight. Consistency with the time of day that you feed is more important.

Once they are on feed and feeding well, then the time of day can switch.

I have fish waiting by the feeder for it to dispense the feed.

I feed once a day, in the evening. I do find that the later it is, the better the fish feed. Do you live at, or close by the pond? The reason I ask concerns hand feeding vs. mechanical feeders. I have a differing opinion than most here, in that I prefer to feed by hand. Certainly, there are occasions and circumstances that require mechanical feeders, but if one is able and can visit a smaller pond every day, I believe hand feeding will allow you more flexibility than a feeder will.

That expensive feed will do you no good if it doesn't end up inside of a fish, and in fact, might possibly do harm where water quality and aquatic growth is concerned. A mechanical feeder will throw whatever amount it is set for, irregardless of any external factors which impact how willing the fish are to feed on any given day.

What if there's a drought, accompanied by very high water temps and feeding activity slows? What if it rains and clouds the water? What about seasonal impacts, such as an influx of natural forage shortly after spawning, and the fish are consuming large amounts of fry instead of pellets? A feeder can't adjust for any of these things. Only having hands on your pond, and eyes on your fish, can.

I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't get a feeder. Certainly they have their place, and fill a need pretty well. It just seems to me that they are not always essential, certainly not in every pond.

So after feeding last night I still didn’t see much action but I did see what I think was a big LMB heavily patrolling the area under the feed i did not see any bait fish. Was it eating feed that was sinking or do you think he was feed trained at some point? Another question I have is how much feed I should be putting out daily.

He was trained all right feeding in the feeding fish. That is why nothing showed up.

General rule of thumb, feed what is consumed in 15 minutes

It took longer than I would have thought for my fish to get on the pellets. The first couple months I would feed at the same location, same time of day, only to watch the pellets slowly drift off untouched by everything but the FHM. I about gave up, but then in June I stocked 100 adult BG from a nearby lake and they began eating pellets that same day.

Now the BG and original HBG stockers take the feed aggressively, but I've yet to see any LMB or CC go for it.