Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Purina Aquamax Sportfish Largemouth.

I have been feeding my fish (Bluegills mostly) Purina Aquamax Sportfish MVP and have had good results. I became aware of the Purina Sportfish Largemouth which is a large (1 inch) pellet that can be hand thrown to larger pellet trained sport fish like 12 inch Largemouth Bass. I was intrigued with this idea and contacted Purina to order this product. Unfortunately, Purina stopped offering this product as, apparently, they were not selling enough of it.

However, I was made aware that Optimal has a product called Optimal Hand Throw Feed which is a one inch pellet. I ordered a bag of this product and a bag of their Optimal Bluegill feed. I have used Optimal Bluegill previously with great results. Has anyone on this forum used the Optimal Hand Throw? I would be interested in any feedback on this product. Thanks.

Geez, I may have got one of the last bags of AQ Largemouth. By mistake, even.

You might have to switch brands. Somehow, the idea of hand feeding the larger fish is intriguing.

I've been using Optimal for several years now, and a major factor is that it's delivered right to my door.

I've used Optimal Hand Throw for all that time, and it's great. Whatever 1" pellets may not get eaten by the larger fish get picked apart and eaten by bluegill.

I feed Optimal Bluegill, Optimal Bass, and Optimal Hand Throw. I also got a bag of Optimal Starter but haven't started using it yet.

Willy Wonka , last year I did buy a bag of Optimal hand throw , 100 percent loved everything about it , delivered right to my office door , the feed trained bass loved it , catfish loved it , never any issues , they reminded me in size of a milk dud candy , throwing this i knew my bass and catfish were getting a good meal and it left the bluegill to clean up my MVP sport fish , April of 23 I stocked 100 6" pellet trained bass ( 16 months ago ) and over the weekend had a couple of these fish just a little over 3 pounds and 1 was right at 4 pounds, I cant say or think of anything negative , that's my 2 cents worth

That is some excellent growth!

What did you catch them on? (There have been several threads lately about people having a tough time catching their pellet-fed bass.)

Catching pellet trained bass is EASY PEASY. Just soften Optimal pellets (any size) with just enough water after 6-8 hrs to make them soft, pliable and moldable very similar to soft modeling clay or pie dough. For 1 cup of pellets use around 2-3 Tbl of water. Experiment with water volume to get it right for each brand of pellets. I like to use warm water for faster softening. Shake pellets until all water is absorbed. Cecil Baird soaks his pellets in a zip loc bag. I use plastic containers appropriate size for amount of pellets. You need to monitor how soft the pellets are progressing and a small spray of water may be needed 20 to 60 min prior to finishing them. When soft, squeeze some into any shape you want and put them on most any size hook or feed them to your fish. Pellets will form mold in around 2 days. Left overs, I refrigerate and or freeze them for later use. For hooks I like # 4 or #2 aberdeen for the large soft rolled pellets and drop them into the area where you are feeding. Then hang on tight to the fish pole.
Note this is not really fishing,,,,,it is called catching. And it does tend to make your fish pellet shy so do not do it often.

FishinRod , our preferred lure is the 1/4 oz Mepps spinner ( WHITE ) and that will catch pretty much everything in the pond , I have caught them also some soft plastics ( crawdad ) we have HBG and BG and of course these bass and even in the winter when i stock RBT that's my lure of choice , pond is almost 2.7 acres, next spring will be its 3rd year since built , I have planted 32 porcupine structures , 12 honey hole shrubs and 3 honey hole trees so there is not shortage of structure to fish , even though the LMB are pellet trained there is NO doubt they are eating other things at my place , I feed 06:00 and 20:00 daily , I very rarely fish over a feeder unless one of the Grand kids is over and we want them to get " bit "

I have some Optimal Bluegill and Optimal Hand Throw on order. Thanks.

I ordered some for myself. Can't wait to try it. Thanks for the input.