Is filleting out those "trash" fish, cutting them into pellet size chunks and feeding them to your pond fish a good idea or bad idea?
I see nothing basically wrong with doing this other than the extra effort that it requires to get the end product. Often fish are pellet trained by first using chopped fish or crushed krill (zooplankton) to get the fish used to eating sinking particles or chopped pieces of fish or sometimes other types of meat/fish. It might be more productive to instead of using outside the pond trash fish, use culled fish from the pond. Most all ponds need to have some fish removed to maintain the optimum balance of species for optimum growth based on one's goals. Some members here cull small BG, mildly inhibit their swimming ability, and hand feed them to the bass. Bass in the pond will quickly 'learn' the new feeding routine.
