Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding 1 acre pond. Feed disbursement and BG behavior

I’ve been feeding in my pond for the last year.
The Texas hunter feeder feeds from shore twice a day at 20 seconds each time.

The fish are waiting at each feeding.

I’m curious if the BG continue to remain in this feeding area constantly or do they meander on into the rest of the pond.

And likewise, the BG we see on the opposite side of the pond feeder… do those BG know about the times feeding area?

Just trying to get a feel fur understanding how these BG move around the pond when an automatic feeder is in play.

Tia

Cc

Not sure.

When I walk from the house to the pond, about 100 yards, and toss feed or do an unscheduled feeding, it takes more time for then to gather up in my one acre pond than it does when the feeder goes off. I think they are somewhat waiting for the expected time.

The fish swim from other areas of the pond to where the feeder is about 30-45 minutes prior to the feeder going off. When I walk to the pond and throw feed out at a "not scheduled" time, I see fish swimming towards the feed from at least half way across the pond. My pond, when full, is slightly over 1 acre.

Mine definitely come to the feeder area around the time it goes off and leave as soon as the food is cleaned up.

In the evenings a few will linger at the periphery until dark hoping I'll throw more food out for them.

How big is the pond?
I’ve ask a similar question to many people, seems as though BG and other fish are somewhat territorial and will come to a feeder from about a 1 acre area.
For instance my pond is 5 acres, I have 2 feeders (east and west banks) From what I’ve gathered I’m feeding about 40% of the fish.
Also a vast majority of my feeder fish stay pretty close by all day long. My bass hang around the feeders also, they eat the pellets and the BG while they are trying to eat. It’s quite a show to watch.
With that, the BG that feed on pellets are much bigger than the ones that don’t but the predator fish are pretty uniform in size from feeding area to non feeding areas of the pond with a few exceptions.

This leads to another question,
Do BG that eat pellets get out of size range for a predator fish to eat more quickly?
I’m 2 years in and the BG around my feeder look like frisbees 5” deep, 9.5” long, over 1# in weight (if you cut off the tail they would literally look like a circle)

That's a "it depends" answer. I've seen LMB eating 8.5" Bluegill, and the LMB were 5-6 pounds. One had 2 in it's gullet (2 tails seen).

If the predators aren't keeping pace with the prey, (and there is plenty of the correct sized prey in the pond), then look at the cover that the predators have in the pond to use. The predators may be expending too many calories swimming around looking for food or attempting to catch fish but missing due to not having the correct cover to ambush their prey from. That could be the reason why they are not growing as fast as they could be..

Proper size forage fish are needed as the predators grow larger. LMB stocked at 2"-3" can grow to 14"-15" and close to 3# in 6 months with the proper sized forage fish.and the proper cover in a pond. So, the predators should be able to grow fast enough to take advantage of the forage in the pond.

Was that a really skinny 28" LMB that ate those two 8.5" BG? Would you say it is normal for 5lb LMB to consume 21% of their body weight in a day?

My predators are no where near big enough to eat the top end of my prey
The pond was stocked 2 years ago and most of the LMB I’ve been catching lately are in the 3 - 3.5# range.
Pond record as of today is 3.63# - 17.4”

I’ve had a few people on this forum ask me, where are you growing 2” LMB to 3# in the first 6 months. It took me 2 years to get there and I’ve been told I have phenomenal growth for the Midwest