Need some help!!
On my 9 ac pond in Chester SC -All BG, LMB, and HSB only want to eat fish food!!!
Fish refuse all artificial lures (flies, soft plastics, spinner baits, jigs ,spinners, crank baits, topwater baits, etc.) and BG are actually reluctant to eat a live worm or cricket! Water quality is great, great deep water and edge cover, top notch surface and diffuser aeration, have excellent live forage (BG, Threadfin shad, Tilapia, Crayfish) Have good numbers of 1 lb. to 6 lb. LMB and 3 lb. to 6 lb. HSB . Have been able to occasionally catch some fish on artificial fish food bait and flies but refusal to catch fish on all artificial lure has become frustrating and disappointing.
3- Feeders operating two times per day distributing approx.150 lbs. Aquamax 600 per month Total.
Considering several options -1. Eliminate feeding totally., 2. Feed every other week.,3.Feed every other month. etc.
Any suggestions or similar experience will be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Al Allison
Have you tried lip hooking live shiners? Small split weight and lite wire hook very small cork(optional) that usually works . Small bg 2” long hard for them to resist
Several of the people that run heavy feed schedules say to turn off the feeders a few days prior to a known fishing day.
The Stubby Steve's lures that actually use a fish pellet as the bait also get many "thumbs ups" on the forum for being effective for several different species of fish.
What FishinRod said. Turn off the feeder a day, a couple of days, before fishing. Your fish food is actually supplemental food, so the fish won't suffer from lack of pellets now and again.
I appreciate the replies. I mostly fly fish but my friends all use other artificials and the lack of catchability seems to transfer to all. Stubby Steves has worked in the past but now does not work. I made a cork fly that replicates fish food and use a small #12 black hook, but BG, HSB, and LMB now turn away. My pond has large population of Threadfin shad but it is rare that you see any surface feeding. These predators seem to be prefer the fish food!
I found a Post by Bill Cody from 2013 and he stated that he cut his feeders off for 2 months to encourage his HSB to eat over abundant BG and indicated that HSB were also reluctant to strike artificials while running feeders. I will turn off feeders for several weeks to see if the fish become more aggressive.
Try chumming with fish feed when you use the Stubby Steve's (a George Glazener trick).
+1 to what Theo said. During many of my fishing sprees, I chum with small quantities of pellets and mealworms. Once that small toss is just about cleaned up, the fish are eagerly searching for more. Something will hit my next presented fly, lure, baited hook immediately.
I was amazed at the skill our guides in Baja had. They could draw a dorado, roosterfish. tuna not only right up to the boat, but to a 10 square foot area of water close to the boat or out aways.
We'd be poised to drop our offering right into that sweet spot with immediate hookup.
I can assure you that on a 9 acre pond and using 150 lbs of food a mth - the fish are eating way more than just fish food. Basic energetics would require much more just to maintain stasis. BTW non-catchability is a heritable trait in most pond species. There are lots of threads here on both subjects.
Al, since you fly fish, try some glo bugs and color them with a brown marker. They come in several sizes, and they sink, or can float if you have a floatant like Gink or Fly Agra.
Glo bugs have caught oodles of trout over the years, and I use the brown ones here.
Back in the day, George used to make his own pellet flies. There's an old thread on the forum showing the steps, but there's not much to it. He'd use a hole puncher on thin foam, then wrap the punch out in stockings, and then tie it off. He'd hook the pellet in the excess material, not the pellet itself.
Pellets wrapped in panty hose are our go to with finicky pellet trained fish - I cast it just like a nymph rig on my fly rods. Cody keeps us in steady supply of used panty hose...I don't ask.
Assorted sizes, I assume.