Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Selecting Times to Feed

Curious what others do on selecting times for the auto feeders.

We are currently seeing some activity at the feeder in the evening 7PM CST on a 1 sec feed. Water is still a little cool and we tried feeding at 11AM allowing the water to get warmed up a little in the AM hours. Would love to get a 2nd feeding going.

Bit of info on the pond. We feed from the West bank so North or South winds really but blow the feed from middle of the pond to the North or South bank lines. West bank is also our shallowish flat area that we have (4) BG spawing beds. We are a little short on pond weeds in the feeding area but do have some holding habitat for the fish 10-12' from the BG spawn beds.

Curious what times you guys are seeing some success at.

Have you tried a big feeding ring?

Keeping the food in a known, stable location might train the fish a little better.

Need to prune some hedge apple trees or clear some cedars this spring? Throwing in some more cover beyond or between the spawning beds might make the BG feel a little more secure.

We're basically feeding from the middle of the pic on the far bank. Haven't tried a ring but it's a good suggestion. You are thinking it's more of a security thing than a time of day application? The pond is out in open range and seem to rarely get calm water on the pond.

We do have a cedar and a hedge in the water currently on opposing sides of the flat. At the drop off from the flat there's more habitat in the way of the DIY blocks/PVC and PVC trees in the deeper pool.

I was thinking that our 11am feeding time was just to bright and shifting to an earlier time would be better for the fish? Seems as though we are having some success with the late feeding and they get to go to sleep with a full belly.

Pic attached was when we were still on initial stages of filling. The blocks ended up getting grouped in packs of 3-4 each. The deeper water has 8-10 complex pvc trees in water currently 7' that will end up closer to 9-10' at full pool.

If feeding smaller fish, feed in shallow water - 2'-4' deep. My fish don't want to eat at noon, but really turn on 1/2 hr-45 minutes before sunset. I have the feeder set for 1 hr after sunrise and about 45 min before sunset. The way my pond is laid out I have a shelf that is about 3' deep that drops off quick to 10' water. I throw feed over both areas. Small fish feed in shallower water, the HSB blow up on the feed in deeper water.

Thanks Esshup. We are feeding in the 2-4' area as well. There is some deeper water close that might get hit with a sprinkling of food via no wind or wind drifting it out there. Do you think it's a light issue with middle of the day feeding or a water temp / activity issue on feeding mid day for your pond?

For my pond, it's solely the amount of light. When there was a big maple tree there shading the pond, they'd eat in the shade in the daytime. Now that it's gone there will be some feeding response during the day, but very minimal. Dawn/dusk is best.

That is a great looking pond, Boondoggle!

Did you add some rock on the far (in the pic) shore, or is that snow?

I also like you big hump with rocks and artificial cover. Will that just barely be reachable by a kid that makes a long cast from the shore? If it holds a lot of fish, then that should certainly incentivize kids to improve their casting skills!

However, it does look like it might be a tad bit windy throughout the spring. Maybe ask your seed guy if they have come out with a new wheat type that grows 60' tall?

Agree. My little fish will eat in sunlit water. The big ones like near-dusk timing - if I want to see them earlier, I feed in the shady side of the dock.

The far area is just the yellow clay at low light.

The hump is decorated with 3-5" limestone rip rap. It should be reachable on a cast from the dam.

On the right corner of the pic there are some larger limestone chunks that basically border a 2-4' drop and trench.

Our dam ended up being almost a long U shape and all of it got rip rapped 3-4' high...half in and half out of water at full pool.

Wind out there was probably the most surprising feature of the land. Rarely do we see calm smooth water. My hope is mother nature will bless us with a little rain this spring and get the water level into the rip rap. Water level has basically been just at the bottom of the rip rap and the wind/white caps are stirring up the clay in the pond as the waves beat on the shore. She has been a little resistant to the rain dances recently but it'll come. I suppose until that happens we'll count our blessings for the wind helping to keep the O2 levels up in the pond :p

Thanks Theo. I think I'll try to move the first feeding a little closer to daybreak. Starting off the day with breakfast and ending with a full belly before bedtime sounds like a nice place to start for the little ones.

That might be the (4) spawning beds you are seeing too. We ended up with (2) 20 x 20 and (2) 10 x 10 pea gravel beds over there across the flat. They were boarded by concrete blocks with the open cells up that I hope at some point to plant a little grass in the open cells of. That project is still on the list of things to do however.

Anything you can do to reduce the fetch length that is building up the wind-driven waves would reduce erosion in your pond.

Do you have any scrap PVC pipe, old dried-out wooden fence posts, etc. on the farm that you could use to create a boom across the pond? Two ugly, poor-boy booms on ropes across the pond perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction might save you some significant erosion damage until you get enough rain to raise your water level up to the rip rap.

It would certainly be ugly now, but may help your pond be more beautiful at full pool. Also the surface area of the stuff floating in the water would help with the amount of beneficial periphyton in your pond!