Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Big Catfish?

I am new to owning a pond. I bought property with a 15 year old pond in August last year and we built a home and moved in this past April. Last Summer/fall I began feeding and had catfish come up to feed. I counted a consistent 13 big guys 2lb to 10.5lb and that was it. Nightly I could get them to the surface.

This season (we had an extremely cold winter with most of it the pond being frozen over) I have counted up to 7 bigger cats, most of the time its 0-2. This morning I feed the fish and I had at least 7 big guys back after about a month of almost no catfish activity, is it possible they were on beds spawning this past month?

That being said I have had the BG feeding like pets this spring.

I am assuming your catfish are channels and do you think you have the proper structure in the pond for their spawning? From what I have read they like, but may not require, cavities of some sort to bed in.

I'm glad to hear they are there. A pond with cats that size is a wonderful thing.

I’ve added about 20 structures of various sizes the past year. There is a 5’x5’x5’ Georgia cube and several cinder block piles. We just got back from feeding the fish saw maybe 2 big cats and probably 100-150 bluegill.

We caught 8 BG while feeding and a nice 1.5lb bass. My 5 year brings them all in and loves it.