Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding caged hybrid striped bass?

The only reason that I'm aware of to use cage culture techniques for raising SBH would be if you needed to remove the fish efficiently for sale. Cage culture is not necessary for feed training. Feed traing SBH is kind of like minnow training your largemouth. Not hard to do. If the cages are being used to protect the fish from predation I'd rather risk 20 or even 30% mortality from predation as opposed to risking 80-90% mortality from fungal infections that could arise from crowding the fish into cages. Even if you're not at the pond every day they will figure out the feeding schedule in short order. An even easier method to get your fish on the feed bag is to distribute feed by hand scattering the feed on the upwind side of the pond on a day with 5-10mph winds. This will allow your feed and the accompanying slick to travel across the pond until the SBH find it. After locating the school throw the additional handsful of feed toward your feeder and coax the school gradually toward the feeding station. Future hand feedings can be done the same way. SBH will figure this out and automatic feedings will be a piece of cake. This will work on ponds that are 10-15 acres. The way that SBH figure out feed location is by sound. Any one fish that locates feed will make a sound during feeding that is identifiable by nearby fish. This "dinner bell" rings loud and clear to all fish. Pretty soon you'll be able to throw the feed to any part of the pond. Once one fish figures it out, they all will. The upwind side of the pond works best though during early stages of training because this prevents uneaten feed from accumulating at the shoreline before being located. Trust me. If SBH can home in on a school of shad from half a mile away, they won't have any trouble locating the pellets.