Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Fishing the same area

where I hand feed YP. I only have one dock and have been feeding my YP from it with great success. Should I avoid this area when fishing/harvesting? I want to release the over 10" fish and still have them feed. I feel this is a stupid question while setting at the computer but when I'm at the pond with fishing gear in hand, I don't want to fish there. Also, can you buy pellet trained WE? Thanks

IMO it is best to fish where you feed only if you harvest every fish or fish with something other than a pellet or pellet imitation. IMO C&R pellet feeding fish in the pellet feeding area induces at least two negative responses: 1. 'jerked by the jaw' in the regular feeding area can create a negative human presence response. 2. Using a pellet imitation anywhere in the pond and releasing that fish induces a negetative response to pellets and in several ways is defeating your purpose of pellet feeding esp for that fish. I never fish where I feed the fish. Perch can usually be readily caught in other areas of the pond, even if it is off the dock and only 50 feet away from the feeding area.
Feed trained WE are very, very hard to locate and probably very costly if you can find them. Not many private sources create them because the demand is low and success rate is low. It is easier & more profitable to work with and sell other species which is the name of the game - profit; unless it is a state run endeavor.

Thanks for the reply! I have a minnow trap and use the FHM from my pond for bait. I want to catch as many minnow eating YP for harvesting and leave the pellet eaters. Is this plausible or do they all eat a variety of both? I would hate to remove the fast growers, larger than 10", if they tend to diet on both pellets and minnows.

Long delay for an answer. I missed this one and no one 'bumped' me about it. I appologize. It is hard to be sure on this question. It is probably both ways and it depends on each fish. Each fish tends to be a little different. It will not hurt a thing to have a goodly number of larger minnow eating YP. Strong pellet eaters probably rarely eat an active large minnow - too much work esp during pellet feeding season. IMO almost no respectable larger YP will be able to resist a minnow impaled and helpless on a hook. But during non-pellet eating season late fall to early spring I am sure these YP consume at least the occassional minnow or aquatic bugs esp if it is easy to catch - mostly smaller minnows. You can remove a few of the fastest growers i.e.larger YP, esp if you don't harvest evey one you catch. A normal YP pond has good number of these bigger YP and healthy recruits are always 'in the wings' waiting to fill the void of harvested fish. Keeping track or records of the size of YP caught will indicate a lot about the abundance of the various size classes present.