Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Any Advantage to Sinking Food?

Is there any advantage to feeding seeking food? Maybe one advantage is that sinking food is not affected by the wind and won't blow onshore. I'm sure there are disadvantages also.

You can feed it in colder temperature months when fish don't like to come up to the surface. I also believe it's generally cheaper, since additional processing is required for floating feed to make it float.

The biggest disadvantage for sinking feed IMHO is that you can't readily see if it is eaten - resulting in poorer volume control (with potentially much more feed wasted) and losing the joy of observation.

Slow sinking food can have the advantage of being distributed through the column all at once, giving some of the smaller, more shy fish a chance to feed down below while the bigger, more agressive fish nail the pellets on the surface.

Sinking food is good for bright daylight conditions too.

I feed exclusively floating food because, as Theo says, it's more fun and I can see if they're eating it all.

I agree with Bruce. Part of the fun of raising fish is watching them grow up.

P.S. When are taking me to lunch????

Aaron

But...if catfish are involved, doesn't that sway the thinking, since they quit surface feeding sooner than BG or HSB?

By saying catfish quiting feeding are you talking about as they get older or as the daylight ends? The reason I ask is because I have found neither to be true on our lake. I've got three foot catfish hitting floating feed into the night. It makes it interesting when I'm fly fishing.

Aaron, I'm taking you to lunch anytime you want Mr. Busy Guy.

My only question is--Do you want your hamburger to be floating or sinking?

I'm meaning when the water cools off in the autumn. They slow down at the surface before bluegill. They definitely will feed in winter. I have caught many in winter on lakes, just the surface activity decreases, and the same fish may not feed daily.

My greatest pond enjoyment of all is watching our fish feeding on floating pellets.
They will be waiting at the feeders to be fed like hogs at a trough.

The BG will be in a school awaiting the feeders to go off and will go into a feeding frenzy, while the HSB will attack the outermost pellets.
The fish will literally splash water onto the bank, and as mentioned, wash the floating pellets to the bank.

Our CC come to the bank and eat the remaining pellets.

I would miss all the action with sinking fish food, and as mentioned, not be able to monitor the amount of food consumed.

BM:

You have a point on CC not surface feeding in colder weather.

The book says CC stop feeding (floating feed) with surface temps below 60 deg F; mine have eaten floating feed as low as 58 deg F, although they have a lot less appetite and will only feed every third day or so. Given how much the Cats can pig out on feed in season, this doesn't bother me too much.