I have a feeder on the pond, and one bag (50#) lasts a month. TH makes larger feeders, so you could be gone for probably 3-4 months and still not run out of food. In my pond, I still hand feed when I'm there, and the fish know it. They'll follow my footsteps to the feeder and I grab a handfull of food & toss it in the pond. When they clean it up, if I have the time, I'll throw out another handfull and continue to watch them.
I have RES eating pellets off the bottom in my pond, and they'll grab the slowly sinking pellets too.
Since this is a test pond, let me throw this at you. Stock 500-700 of the largest RES that you can find this Spring. If they are 5"-6" then they should spawn this year. As soon as it cools down enough in the Fall, stock 75 HSB about 10" long. Feed 'em until you leave, then empty out the feeder until you get back in the Spring and the water warms up.
Putting in HSB instead of LMB means you can always put in LMB, but once the LMB are in there, they are in there. This year, yank out every GSF and BG that you catch.
