Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Deciding To Feed

There is no question that you can have notably more pounds of fish in your pond if you feed. How those pounds are distributed is largely up to your management strategy and tactics; in 1/3 acre it should not be hard to steer in the direction you want.

Since the BG you stocked last year are spawning sized now, additional stocking may well not necessary. I don't recall seeing the numbers of BG/RES/LMB you stocked in the prior thread; could you post them here for review?

Feed as much feed as your fish will eat in 10-15 minutes. Since you are concentrating on the BG, multiple feedings a day would be a help (BG have rather small stomachs compared to, say, CC). Twice a day is a big help and some Southern PMs have gone as high as 4.

I think you still have plenty of feeding season left this year - perhaps 5-6 months worth. We had a survey a while back on how much different members fed per acre per month, and 50 lbs/acre/month was a pretty common figure. So if you started with a 50 lbs bag, that would go a long ways toward this year's fish feed supply.

I would expect well fed BG of your current size to gain 1" to 2" in length during the rest of the year, but also to be in noticeably better condition (i.e. beefed up). How well you BG will take to food in the short term depends on the relative amounts of BG and (natural) BG food present- the hungrier they are, the sooner they will start eating pellets and (likely) the more they will eat.

Once they have spawned and the pond is full of fat, hungry BG, your harvesting totals will be higher than otherwise would be possible.

The biggest downside to feeding IMHO is the increased need to be vigilant of your water quality, both from a processed food by product viewpoint and also due to the larger mass of fish you will have on the pond. Do you now or are you planning to aerate?