Originally Posted by FishinRod
Originally Posted by esshup
I've only been able to get approximately 60% of the RES of a certain batch feed trained, using a mixture of Optimal Starter #4 and Optimal BG JR feed. This is in a recirculating system.

esshup,

Have you ever tagged any of the feed trained RES to observe how much they outperform the other 40% once they are put into a pond environment?

What is the alternative food source for the non-trained RES in your system? Do you think the non-trained fish prefer that food, are better at capturing it, or are just plain stupid?

Those are good questions. RES are so hard to catch in my pond that I never thought about tagging them. They are too small to tag when released anyway. No snails in the pond, at least none that I can see, so they have to be eating small fish and other inverts. I haven't caught a RES in the pond in a few years, but a buddies kid caught one last Spring that was 12" long. If he fishes the pond now, I have put a price on all the fish, so he will weigh/measure/write down the info on each fish. I pay $0.50/lb for that information, and have a $2/lb bounty on all the LMB that he can remove. He now has an incentive to gather that info. grin

I furnished a digital scale like they use on the MLF show, and I have a write in the rain spiral bound notebook that I have labeled with all the fish species in the pond. I made columns for date, length, weight, and whether kept or released. Any fish that is bleeding is to be removed.

I keep all that stuff in a tote where he can access it even if I am not home.

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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).