Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Time to turn on feeder ?

I will be going out to my place Thursday-Sunday to shoot some coyotes, run fenceline, and burn excess brush around the pond. (and fish ) I'm planning on turning the Fat-Cat feeder from the "deer" position to the "fish" direction, throwing 1 lb, twice a day. Is it too early ? high temps will remain in the mid 50's. Is one second feed time useless...do I need to bump it to more ?

Are others already feeding again in Central/North Texas ? (I know George feeds, but he's close to his pond and can monitor) My next trip out will probably be mid-March, getting everything ready for Turkey Season

Any and all comments & thoughts will be appreciated.

OK, I'm the jealous one now. I've got close to two months until I can fish. Blah!

There you go, Eastie! One way to get back at the dentist-man.

Make sure to take plenty of pictures and post where applicable.

I think you're early. I tossed some in today and got very few takers.

I also think you are being optimistic about the temps. However, if you can't make it back for six weeks.....

Probably a bit early. If you feed set it for the afternoon at hottest part of the day. If you decide to wait until March I don't think you are losing much growth potential.

I have 1.5 feet of ice and the highs are going to be below zero this weekend. If I could start feeding in March my fish would be twice the size they are. I'm jealous. I will say that come mid April my fish will start taking floating feed the same day the ice completely melts. In the fall they feed all the way up until the ice forms. They are Minnes-o-ta hardy.

I'll try and feed mine today and let you know when I get back tomorrow. But I don't have a lot of confidence and think I'm farther south than you are (Between Bryan and Huntsville)

01-26-07
Long rang forecast for next 5-7 days, lows in 30's to high temps in the 40's.
I'll wait for a warming trend and then feeders on.

Eastland, it was too cold for the CC but did kill a 200# hog @ the feeder behind the pond dam in the moonlight.

That's good enough for me. I'm taking feed out and starting it up, 2 seconds in the late evening. If the fish food smell brings in a hog, I'm happy. If the fish get any, I'm happier.

OOPS! No I meant the deer feeder behind the pond dam. Sorry.

Eastland with this weather I would set for only one sec. Water temps will be laking a little behind the temp so with recent blast the fish (bluegill) will not be hitting it for awhile after you set it. I woke up to snow on the ground this morning. Typical fashion though it is already melting and now starting to rain.

I picked up 6 bags of feed from The Pondmedic, and I'm off tomorrow to fill the feeder...setting the timer for 4 p.m., 1 Second. Do I have Spring Fever or what ! It may be cold this weekend, but Wednesday 2/7, it's back into the 60's

Let us know how the fish are feeding on your next visit, good luck. I wish all my clients were this excited in the spring.

Ive been tossing out a little feed lately and have seen very little,if any action.However a freind of mine has been feeding his CC all winter and said they come up and feed every time.Hes about a mile from me.Im about 80 miles south of Dallas,any ideas on whats going on?
Eastland,did you notice if yours were feeding?

None of mine would eat this week and I'm as far south as Huntsville, it's still too early by a week or two.

I agree - FWIW....

Yesterday morning air temp 62, water 44 - afternoon air 71, water 49.9.
Cold front tonight means lower temperature trend so feeders stay off.
If warming trend predicted feeders would be turned on
Maybe next week

N.E. Texas

Threw out a few handfuls of feed this afternoon and saw four swirls in about 10 minutes. Not enough to get my blood pumping but a positive sign none the less. George, what kind of thermometer do you use for water temps?

FamilyTradition, I use an inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometer from WallyWorld.
If I remember correctly, it has a 8 ft wire connector to probe - I use a small nylon cable tie to attach a fishing weight to sink to desired depth.
Very accurate.
I keep in with me to check temps routenemly.

I wish I could think about turning on a feeder....Right now the only thing I can think about is when the foot of ice on my pond is going to melt.Sometimes I wish I lived in a warmer climate.

Here's a small taste of spring from the Post Oak Savanah of Texas, pics were taken Sunday 2/11/07.

Aargh! I've still got high temps only in the 20's and lows about 10. I have two feet of ice on the pond and it won't melt until April. I just checked my water temps this weekend. Just under the ice was 36, five feet down near the bottom was 42. I still can't figure out how this works when 39 deg. water should be at the bottom I thought. I can't check my deepest spot in pond because of the aerator near that area makes it dicy to walk on the ice. I'll try to check it out this weekend. I've been thinking it would be nice to have a temperature data logger. I'd like to monitor my water temps over 24 hour periods. I've found many nice units for several hundred bucks. Anyone ever see one cheaper? Would be a good way to measure the temp. impact of the aerator and of cold weather days.

My uninformed guess as to why the water temp is warmer deeper is because of the warming effect of the earth below. The water/earth contact exchanges heat into the pond. Must happen faster than the "sinking" of the colder, denser water from just under the ice. Just a guess.

One of the properties of water that permits life survival in all bodies of water that freeze over, is its unique expansion and contraction graph vs temperature. Water contracts and gets denser down to 39 degrees Fahreneheit. Then as it gets colder than 39 it begins to expand again until it reaches 32 degrees and freezes, which is why ice floats. If this were not so, ice would sink to the bottom and ponds would freeze from the bottom up instead of from the top down.
Convection would rapidly produce solid blocks of ice out of ponds that merely have a crust of ice on them in the winter. This protective property of water can be nullified by deeply aerating a partially frozen pond and breaking up the protective stratification so that the deepest parts no longer are in the 39-42 degree safety zone of many fish. There are a number of posts regarding winter aeration that illustrate this principle.