In SW MI the weather has been unusually balmy. We had a little snowstorm but most of the snow has melted off. Yesterday was blue sky and sunny and just above the freezing mark. Enough for the thin skin of ice left in the pond to melt. I'm down to the bottom of my bag of Optimal 'homemix' food. Most of the fish won't feed when water temps are below 50, but this year is different.
I threw some out around the floating ice floes and sure enough the spotfins were there to slowly pick away at it. Amazing how these shiners are so hardy, so rapidly take to pellets and will continue to feed right through the cold weather/cold water season. Certainly they don't launch themselves out of the water in their excitement to eat like they do in the middle of the summer but they certainly were there and picking away at the food as it hydrated and sank.
Amazing. Hopefully more pond owners can source these and get them in their pond, or perhaps come spring those in the midwest who have sources to obtain these can grow them in forage ponds and share with others. I started with less than 2 dozen and have thousands. They seem to be one of the more ideal northern pond forage species.
