Hi everyone. My father and I are in the process of finishing up a .75 acre pond in Northern Virginia that we eventually intend on stocking with SMB. Here is the thread to the pond construction: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=281556&page=3

The pond should be completed this weekend and I will be adding extensive cover on Saturday. When the water gets to 5 feet deep in the pond I will be stocking fathead minnows, golden shiners, red eared sunfish, banded killifish, bluntnose minnows, satinfin shiners, spotfin shiners, crayfish, and bullfrog tadpoles. By the time the pond is full we will add some hardy lillies as well. The pond will sit for a full year so that the forage fish can get established, then we will add yellow perch and smallmouth bass.

Is a feeder something we need? The pond will have a nice dock and we can easily put one of the Texas Hunter feeders on it. It was my understanding that the varied minnow population will provide good forage for the perch and smb until they can begin to prey on the GSH and RES. I have had no luck finding a source for pellet-trained SMB so I am under the assumption that the SMB will not be feed trained when they are stocked. My goal is to have big smallmouths (anything over 3lbs is big in my opinion) but I fear that feeding might make the RES too big for the SMB to eat and I don't know if the minnows will be able to gain anything at all from the feedings. In most of the threads I have read through it appears that feedings are done to accelerate the growth of bluegill for LMB forage, since I won't have bluegill is this something I need to worry about? Will yellow perch eat pellets?

I am worried that feeding will condition some of these smallmouth bass to feed at whatever times the feeder goes off. That seems like somewhat of a concern for angling, I want to be able to catch fish at all times of the day and not just at a few 15-minute intervals throughout the day. It also seems like a SMB might be less interested in artificial lures if he is used to eating pellets and not chasing down forage. Are these valid concerns or am I just worrying?

My parents will be at the farm three days a week and I probably will be there twice a month so adding an expensive high-maintenance feeder is something we won't do if it is not very beneficial to the pond.

I am patient enough to wait 5+ years for 3lb smallies if that is what is necessary in a pond with no feeding; however, if a 3lb smallmouth is not a reality without feeding I will suck it up and feed them.