Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Optimal Bluegill fish food

Tony, if you run short, I might be down your way in a month or so. If not, shipping is an option too.

Thanks Scott. Just for comparison, I dug out the receipt for the AQ. This was a few weeks ago so things might've changed, but it was right at $42 a bag, me picking it up at the dealer. Even thought the OBF is 10 lbs lighter, at $45 per delivered it's a no brainer. I hope production is ready, as I have a feeling this stuff will be very popular.

Maybe I missed it but whit whom do we place our order?

Esshup

Scott,
Awesome work by you again! But did I miss something, or will the TH feeder throw this feed?

Mike, they throw it just fine.

I contacted Matt a few weeks ago and ordered some Optimal Bluegill fish food. It arrived Monday and was packaged very well. For six weeks I had been feeding Aquamax in my FHM/RES only pond. I had never noticed a RES hit the surface or an aquamax pellet. Monday night I switched from Aquamax to Optimal. Tuesday night I noticed a dozen or more RES hit the surface. Although I'm not 100% certain they are hitting the pellets rather than the FHM, I think I can assume they are as I've never seen them hit FHM before. I hope to verify they are feeding on pellets this evening. If so, I have to say I'm shocked. RES are notorious for being very difficult to feed train. And here I have RES in a pond full of food items such as snails and FHM, and they feed trained within 2 feedings. That seems absolutely amazing to me. I'm hoping this is an answer to creating trophy RES fisheries. Cautiously very optimistic at this time.

Whoa. This could be really cool! Any chance for video or photos?

I'll work on it.

Planning on doing a little testing on my dad's bluegill pond. Throw a half cup of Aquamax off of one side of the dock and another cup half full of Optimal off the other side of the dock. I will take video after one week of this.

I got half a pallet of feed on my first order....Even late in the season I may need to order in more for customers.

That's right Rex, don't run out before you bring my YP and bag of feed lol

Cmm

I have a bag showing up tomorrow, can't wait to try it out on my RES.

Our RES fed on the Optimal as well.

A production run was completed today, and the pellet size was changed. After some consultation with some of the Optimal Feed users, the new production run has 3 different sized "pellets" in it. Here's what the new pellet sizes look like:


There's 3 different sized pellets in the bags, and once all the existing food is sold, any new feed will be this. There isn't much of the previous production run food left, I have less than half a pallet and half of that is already spoken for.

For people that ordered half and full pallets, the new production run is slated to ship starting on Friday.

Just as a reminder, this food is designed to feed Bluegills and all other sunfish (which in turn will feed the predatory fish that feed on them). I have been feeding HSB and other fish in cages Optimal, and the LMB/SMB/YP/RES/BG/CC, etc. in my pond Optimal food for a while. All the fish seem to be doing great, but I have a feeling that next year there will be another formulation that is more tailored to the top end predator fish in the pond.....

That's another thing that I like about this company - they LISTEN to the people who are using their food, and continually change to make the food the best on the market.

Pic of AM 500 next to current run of optimal..

The newest production run of Optimal is approximately .040" smaller in diameter than the one that you pictured, and approximately .040" larger in diameter than the initial run. Tony, the initial run is the food that you had.

I've started using the new configuration and my fish are absolutely going nuts over it. Very very impressive! I thought perhaps I would see a day or two lag based on the slightly different look and size, but no such problems.

Bruce, you're feeding production run #2 and the new pellet size (3 sizes in one bag) is production run #3.

I think the third run has the bases pretty well covered. Very enthusiastically looking toward next season.

Also, I appreciate the company working WITH us to fine tune the product. After what I've gotten used to as of late with other suppliers, this is very refreshing.

I'm requesting a video of their feeding Shorty!

I didn't hydrate the optimal feed in time the other day so fed it to them dry right out of the bag. Didn't seem to make a difference.

Springer Spaniels sure seem to love it....

Sean

You don't have to tell me about it. Mine will almost be deep enough in the water to swim picking up the pellets from the water....

It actually looks pretty tasty.

I wonder if you can vacuum pack portions and sell it to the doomsdayers as survivalist food

I've been told if one is hungry enough one will eat just about anything.