Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding fish Grasshopper and Crickets

I've been feeding the fish in my pond (LMB & BG) some bugs near the pond to give them some live food instead of the bread and pellets.

They love it and snatch them up quickly.

I've been tossing in beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and centipedes.

Any problem with this?

The reason I ask is I noticed many grasshoppers and crickets towards the back of the property while mowing yesterday and was going to scoop a bunch up for feeding.

On a side note I found a dead fish in the pond the other day. I believe it was an LMB. This is good and bad. Bad to lose the fish but good in that I haven't seen any LMB since I stocked the pond last fall. I put them in at 2-3" and this fish is 12". The picture is below. Is he an LMB?

I'm not sure what got to him. He appeared to have had his chest cut open.

That is definitely an LMB.

Feed your panfish all of the hoppers and crickets you can. They'll love you for it. If I could have my bluegill entirely on a big bug diet I'd do it in a second.

"Dr. Frankenbruce's Big Bug Bluegill Banquet"

Say THAT 5 times real fast.

So you want bugs? I just started trying the maggot pole idea that I think we talked about on another thread. I've been trapping the overproduction out of my pond and had been burying them. Then I got to thinking about the maggot feed idea. So why waste the fish? Now I put the fish on an expanded metal mesh platfrom hanging out over the water. In a couple of days you get lots of juicy maggots. The theory is when they crawl out of the carcass to burrow into the dirt they fall into the water. Last weekend there was a constant flow of the little guys into the water and the fish had a feast. Since then there has appeared the occasional odd dead squirrel, chicken, whatever else works. Gotta put it somewhere where you won't spend much time too close but it's best to put it where you normally do the feeding.

Kevinlp - That is a largemouth bass. After looking at the picture, I have two thoughts. 1. I suspect that your pond is a pond that is older than 3 or 4 yrs. 2. I conclude this because the bass in the picture appears to be stunted. A closer photo would have been more helpful to determine stunting. The fish when it died appeared fairly plump but the but head looks a little larger than that for a typical 12" LMbass. I doubt that the dead bass grew to that size in your NY pond in one year (10-11 mo); possible but not likely. I suspect that it was present when you stocked fish last year. It could have died of old age?. How old is your pond?

We moved in last year. It is a natural pond that was here before us. The pond had creyfish and some small minnows in it when we moved in. I have found a large catfish who loves the pellets. He's about 18" and has to weigh a couple ponds. I added 25 LMB last year and a combo of 50 BG and Fat Heads. In June I noticed at least ten spot where I think BG had eggs since I saw a fish nearby who appeared to be guarding.

I still think the bass is at least somewhat stunted. It and a similar sized "buddy" could have eaten some of the fish that you stocked last fall. A few may neeed to be restocked.

Is your pond water clear enough to see what type of fish are eating the bugs that you toss in the pond? Try to see what type of fish are eating at the surface. I little fishing with a small hook and slender bobber or just a plain #8 aberdeen hook with a cricket attached should allow you to sample what fish are feeding on the handouts. You should be able to catch a few bass about 5"-8" long which would be those stocked last fall.

I feed my bluegills crickets and grasshoppers whenever I can. Earlier in the spring I raided every tent caterpillar nest I could find for fresh, moving protein.

Now seems to be the peak of the grasshopper season and the fields around the pond are loaded with them. Yesterday I caught a big grasshopper and sent him for a swim. A bluegill sucked him down instantly. The fish then returned to the spot where the bug landed and looked up at me as if to say, "Hey Dad, give me another one."

So I caught another big 'hopper and tossed him at the same bluegill. Whoosh! The 'hopper went down the hatch abeit a little slower with swallowing. Again, the bluegill gave me that plaintive look and I relented with a third big 'hopper. Remember that we are talking a six inch fish here. Mr. Bluegill took Mr. 'Hopper right away but couldn't swallow him. He swam around frantically with half a 'hopper sticking out of his mouth trying to keep the other fish from stealing it. I figure yesterday was the equivalent of Thanksgiving Day for that little dude!

Isn't it great to watch them eat those hoppers like that! I got a confession to make, I bought myself a butterfly net, told the store clerk it was for my kids. This time of year I get a kick out of just walking along the pond swishing up hoppers and throughing them in just to see em eat. Spent an hour doing that today. Glad the neighbors can't see me, probably look kinda rediculous chasing around with that net. Wish I could figure out a way to catch them by the hundreds.

Yesterday, ol pal & me rigged up a piece of tin 6 feet wide and 24 inches tall and bent a sharp v in the bottom of it, taping closed the ends of the "trough" formed.

Hang it on the front of the ATV and go blasting through the tall grass pasture. He pulls up and I jerk the thing off the front and carry it out to the bridge and dump the contents in the pond. After about 10 minutes of them figuring out what was up, the gills and bass were really terrorizing the spiders, ghoppers, crickets, moths, stinkbugs and caterpillars that were madly trying to make to shore.

Made 3 run & dumps...that was a blast. Anything that managed to run the gill gauntlet got nailed by the bullfrogs as they got close to shore...

PETA would love to read this.....

A little trick I learned while shore fishing was to stay back from the shore and run Your rod tip through any grass on the shoreline you plan to fish. A lot of the little creatures will jump and land in the water. Wait a couple of minutes, keep a low profile, and cast to the feeding frenzy.

Matt, PETA ought to love you for feeding the fish and frogs. Just don't ever hook them fish or eat them! That metal trough idea is great. I discovered another little trick that is slower but still fun. At dusk I find that the hoppers are sitting on stalks of tall grass getting ready to sleep there I guess. Anyway, they don't seem to be able to hop or fly at this time of day. Don't know if it's the cool weather or just the fact that they've had a long day and its bed time. You can just pick them off like berry picking. In no time flat I can collect 20 or 30 hoppers. I like to just throw them in one at a time in different locations until I see a particularly large fish hit one. Then I keep throwing hoppers to that fish all the while encouraging it to grow baby grow!

If there is a bass or bream that won't take a cricket or grasshopper, there's something wrong with that fish. I can remember when I was a kid about this time of year I couldn't wait for my dad to get home from work and we would go to the pond and throw in grasshoppers for what seemed like forever. We had a blast!