Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Fish Food for new and established fish

Rowly - I tend to agree with Cecil. Plus some added comments.
1. 16 Acres will produce a fair amount of fish for harvest each year depending on the soil type and natural fertility of the watershed that drains into the pond. Even if your fertility is on the low productivity range (40 -50 lbs of fish per acre), that converts to 640 - 800 total lbs in the pond. "The book" says one can harvest about 40-50% of the fish crop per yr. which is 256 lbs (at 40%). Thats a lot of fish to clean. Even if you harvested very conservatively at 100 lbs/yr; that should provide plenty of fish to eat each year.

2. Feeding Your Fish. Studies have shown that fish will travel to feed only 50 -100 ft on either side of a feeder. The only fish that will probably eat pellets in your pond as it is now are the bgill and some perch. If you have just stocked bgill wait till they are abt 6" long before feeding unless you can get a smaller pellet variety than 1/4". Wild bass for the most part & walleye will ignore pellets for you.

If you want to try feeding your fish just for fun and be able to catch a quick fish or to have some growing better than the nonfeed ones - go for it. Before buying an autofish feeder get them eating pellets first by hand feeding. This allows you to see how much is getting eaten and not washed to shore to grow algae. A floating feeding ring helps get them trained to eating pellets. I would highly recommend finding a trout chow ration. Ask your local provincial game warden or extension service as to the closest place to get quality fish feed. I'm not sure of the brands sold in Ontario. Since your fish are not already on feed, they will more likely accept it if it has higher protein and flavor enhancers that the trout ration normally has. If your fish accept the feed then spit it out, try moistening the feed 2 hrs before feeding it, gets them eating quicker. They are rejecting pellets because they are hard. The cheap feeds will NOT soften properly but fall apart when moist. Trout chow WHEN NOT TOO WET remains pliable like moist clay. Roll it into pellets so they sink and they will almost always take it.

3. As you said in your Aug 16 post "need to keep on top of your pond mgmt" is a good idea. Managed properly (big job) your 16 acres should without feeding pellets provide you with great fishing and plenty of good sized fish. Management in terms of proper harvest is key to having a great fishery. Proper harvest in your pond/lake is dependent on what goals you want the fish populations to be like. If you don't have the May-June issue of Pond Boss Magazine get it. The cover story is about selective harvest. The concepts apply to all predator -prey fish populations. Always keep these concepts in mind when harvesting your fish. Harvest is important to prevent overcrowding and lack of growth of all sizes of the predators & panfish. Any size of fish can stop growing when food becomes in short supply which usually occurs when too many brothers and sisters are sharing the food source.
4. Walleye will work in your pond, but remember each one will take the place of one bass. Each eats about the same amount of forage per year. Bass will reproduce and walleye likely will not reproduce in your pond. Walleye have successfully reproduced in a few northern ponds but it is rare and special conditions are needed. Walleye and bass will probably prefer the perch over the bgill as forage. This is because of the shape of the bgill vs perch; round vs slender. Slender is easier to swallow. If you favor one over the other manage them accordingly. I can advise if you need help here. Just ask.

5. From your first post of having lots of small perch it sounds like your first project is to get the perch population thinned so their growth is better. There is probably one size way too abundant and over eating the food source thus growth is poor. With proper size and number structure you should be able to easily have 8-10" perch as common catch in a year or two once more food becomes available.
6. Before you add the fingerling SMB, LMB or walleye, do a heavy thinning of the small yellow perch. Make sure the newly stocked predators have LOTS of the apropriately sized things to eat. This is key to survival of the newly added fish in to existing populations. Often newly stocked predators are outcompeted by the resident over abundant forage fish (perch) and survival is poor. Heavy thinning of the stunted size class will free up more small food for the newly stocked predators. The small predators need a lot of small bugs and small fish fry (YOY, young of the year) (which may not be abundant in your system) to get a "foot hold" and get some growth so they can be bog enough to eat the most abundant prey fish; in your case it is probably perch 4-6".
The other option is to stock larger predators (12-14") which can immediately start eating 4-6" perch.
BCody