Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Feed trained bass

I'm trying to wrap my mind around the feed trained Bass. Feed trained Bass don't grow as big? They don't live as long? They reproduce Bass that are not feed trained? They have to be restocked with more feed trained Bass. Yes I like feed trained Bass I'm just trying to better manage them.

Feed trained bass are mostly northern LMB. If you can find someone with feed trained florida LMB I'd imagine they would grow as big as non feed trained Florida LMB.

We believe feed trained bass die younger because they grow quicker than non feed trained bass. That's all I remember without doing additional research.

You only get feed trained bass by crowding them in small tanks and feeding them pellets while they are fingerlings. Eating pellets is unnatural to the them. In ponds the bass aren't confined to one small area so most of the time they don't learn to eat pellets.

Last year i bought some 2 inch Florida fingerlings from Todd's. They weren't pellet trained at first. I put them in aquarium and i could get 60% of them pellet trained in a couple of days. But that 40% never got used to eating pellets.

I tried jelly fish food and shrimp but didn't really work. Starving them for weeks didn't work too.


I need to mention that i had pellet trained Bluegills in that aquarium as well. Maybe that contributed in the process of training the bass.

Here up North I have had feed trained bass (both Largemouth AND Smallmouth) stay on feed year to year. Some bass have taken to eating pellets on their own, but I'd say less than 10% of the bass spawned in the pond.

From what I've seen with other food, the life span of the bass aren't as long as non-feed trained bass, but I haven't been feeding Optimal long enough to know about that food and bass lifespan.

I AM seeing bass that are feed trained NOT eating pellets that are too small. Once bass in my pond reach about 4 pounds, they won't eat pellets that are 8mm in size, they want larger pellets, but not the 1" pellets that the AM Largemouth pellets are. They will happily chow down on 10-11mm pellets, or wait until 2-3 8mm pellets clump together.

So are you not seeing a lot of Bass spawning? This is different than most ponds? Most ponds have over spawning of bass

No, I have hit 'em hard and heavy every year to remove as many Male bass as I see, and any untagged bass. The feed trained bass all have floy tags in them.

The rule at my pond is EVERY bass that is not tagged comes out, no matter if it is 2" or 20" long. Whenever I see a male bass on a next it is caught and removed, tagged or not.

I will never get them all out, but I am slowly transitioning the pond to a SMB/HSB pond.

If you stock feed trained Bass because they don't get over eight pounds do you decrease your chances of catching a ten pounds bass

James,

I think you can interpret what Esshup said a couple different ways..



You read it as only 10% of the LMB spawned.

I read it as 10% of the new spawn took to pellets.

Probably need Esshup to clarify

I have been growing feed trained bass to advanced size for sale for 4 years now. The growth rate when it comes to length is no that different from a well managed pond that uses normal forage species. The biggest difference is girth. The feed trained bass will be from 40-70% above average weight. Traditionally that is fat, however there has been some improvements in feed of late and I am seeing more muscle and less fat. Especially visceral fat. In my experance feed trained bass fill a niche in the market. Feed trained LMB can be used in a new pond where you want to catch big bass now and still want to grow forage for later generations. The feed trained bass will not pressure the forage fish anywhere near the way non pellet trained will. Also they are great for adding genetics as larger fish are not prone to predation. But most of the people who buy from me just want to catch lots of big bass now so they stock heavy with my advanced size bass knowing that forage is not an issue.

I think if you have LMB along side of some SMB and HSB (both of which eat pellet feed), the LMB will get on board with the feed easily.

cray what is your largest feed trained bass?