Originally Posted By: Fred Minnich
After stocking my 0.2 acre pond with channel catfish, largemouth bass, and bluegills, I began to supplement the natural food source (fathead minnows) with a bagged fish food. This seems to work fine.

However, being a guy, I started catching grasshoppers and a few crickets, Japanese beetles, and caterpillars and throwing them into the pond for the fish. The bass and bluegills were usually pretty happy to attack and eat them. Now I wonder if any of these insects or others I might find in my yard and garden would be harmful to the fish. Some insects have a hard "shell" and others might be toxic. Is there any insect in Indiana I should not use as fish food? Note: I won't use praying mantids, lacewings, and other beneficial insects for fish food.

Thank you for your information.



Hi Fred - great post. Along with Travis I can't think of any insects I'm aware of that would cause any harm to fish. I also can't resist the tempation to capture hoppers and throw them into the ponds - it's the eternal kid in us, I think. Nothing cooler than watching fish surface feed IMO...I could, and often times do, watch for hours.

If you are REALLY into it, like me, you could consider buying a BOJO fishing light and fixing it to your dock if you have a dock and power to your ponds. I know Nate Herman sells them...they sound very cool. I plan on buying a couple this Spring when I put in my dock.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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