Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding New SMB Pond, Should I feed?

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.

Feeding won't lessen your angling chances, and the predators won't just concentrate on the pellets, nor will they concentrate on feeding just around the feeder.

While feeders are a lot of $, I think you definately get what you pay for. As for high maintenance, with the top of the line feeders (Texas Hunter - that is the only one that I have experience with) the only maintenance is filling it with food and adjusting the time of day to feed.

Feeding isn't mandatory, but it will help your fish grow quicker.

Other than forage fish, basically you're stocked sunfish and predators are the brood fish, and their offspring are the ones that get eaten. That will change as the stocked fish get older and start to die off, but that's the plan in the beginning.

I think the feeder helps with angling success, the fish won't specifically target pellets if they are feeding on them, and you can get the bite to "turn on" by throwing in a handful of food - that works really well when kids are wanting to catch fish.

YP eat pellets well. I would start out feeding the various fish you listed by hand with a catfish crumble. RES may eat a little if trained but the others should eat well. As none of those are predator fish lower protein catfish crumble will do fine and costs less. Craws and possibly the BF will eat fish food also.

A decision on a feeder can wait until you get the YP and if possible trained SMB.

I'll let the feeding pros talk about that. I plan to feed my pond but my population is not going to be as diverse as yours.

One thing I will comment on is that feeding should have little impact on the size of your RES because they (most of them at least) will not feed train them selves inside of a pond (though I wish they would).

I there any disadvantage with having RES in a SMB pond?

None at all. RES do not spawn often enough to be a problem in most, if not any, pond.

While it might be hard to determine, I think RES will eat more pellets that hydrate and sink than you imagine. It's just that you can't see them eating.

I have a platform that is a couple feet above the water where the feeder sits. I can see RES picking up pellets from the pond bottom in <24" of water, but never see them taking pellets off of the water surface. I have about 50 RES in the pond, so I'd estimate about 10% are eating sunken pellets that I can actually see. These RES are from wild stock, not from a hatchery.

So now I have fathead minnows, golden shiners, and crayfish in the pond with the more diverse minnows hopefully arriving this weekend. Should I set up a feeder for these fish or are they too low on the chain to eat from the feeders? If I should feed them what food should I be using?

If you feed your GSH and FHM they will reproduce more...recommend feeding them. I use Aquamax 500 for my GSH and FHM.

If you are feeding the larger sized feed to minnows consider building a feeding ring of 1" to 2" dia black irrigation pipe or you can use PVC 2"-4". Build it round or square. It will float and contain the pellets until they soften and minnows can then better eat them. A wind / splash baffle on the inside sometimes helps. YOu dont want pellets floating to shore, remaining uneaten, and then growing algae. For my minnows/shiners, I grind my larger pellets into a variable sized small feed.

Thanks guys!