Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Invisible Catfish

You could probably speed up the "feed training" process by getting a bag of sinking catfish feed and putting some of it out each day. This will get them accustomed to coming for feed more quickly and help them lose their fear of you on the bank. They like to stay out of sight of shore line predators (for good reason) and by the feed being on the bottom (where CC are more comfortable anyway) they can partake without fear. Then once they associate your footsteps with feed, it is a short jump to them eating surface pellets. But they will learn about the surface pellets without sinking feed, it just takes longer.

The problem for many in doing that is finding the sinking feed. If you are anywhere around where many catfish are raised it will be easy to find. In other areas not likely. We have one feed mill that carries it.

The other problem with sinking feed is a person never knows for sure if they are feeding too much. Not being able to see it consumed a person could run into the problem of over feeding and foul the water with excess nutrients. This however would likely only be a problem if a person was feeding several pounds per acre. If a person is just trying to get his CC on feed and feeds a small portion each day it likely would not be a problem. As long as your fish are young and you still have FHM's in the water they will also "clean up" whatever the CC don't.

Early on my first pond adventure I used an underwater camera to watch what was going on when I fed some sinking feed. I would drop a pile of it off the dock with the camera down in position. Within a minute a school of FHM would find the pile and commence to eating away at it till they muddied up the water to the degree I could no longer see with the camera. I would swim or snorkel and if I would lay still for a while FHM would find me in short order and would be grooming the hair on my legs and arms trying to eat me.

CC will become pets if a person works with them enough. I have only tried this a couple times with scuba but I would take feed under water and feed the fish. It takes a lot of patience because the fish are very wary. At first only small BG will come in for the feed but if a person works with them long enough even larger CC will come in and nearly eat from your hand. If a person did it daily soon you would be batting them away they would be so thick. But like training a dog, it would take time and effort to get them accustomed to a person to the point they were no longer afraid of them.

In a nearby lake there was one cove where scuba divers used for training. The CC got so used to divers bring down cut up hot dogs that they would follow you around waiting for a treat. They would literally take the hot dog pieces out of your hand.

I have an automatic feeder but also hand feed many days when I am around home. My fish are attuned to the sound of my Polaris UTV driving around the pond. They hear/feel that sound and it is the "dinner bell". I will have BG and CC following me around the bank of the pond as I can see their wakes coming toward me. I even occasionally will have one or two LMB follow me because they know the small BG will be off guard waiting for feed and I have actually had the bass splash me as they attacked a BG near the shore line. Had one that actually jumped up on the bank (I'm sure a miscalculation on its part), flop a couple times and back into the water.

The more time you spend around the pond, the more interesting things you find out.