Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Where to set Fish Feeder

I’ve been manually throwing feed in 7 locations around a 3 acre pond once a day. With good
activity from the CNBG at each. I have ordered a feeder and have started feeding from the location where I plan on putting the feeder twice a day. Not getting much activity and probably throwing too much of the Sportfish MVP. My questions are how long before I start getting good numbers feeding? Do I totally quit feeding at the other locations?
With the feeder somewhat centrally located on the North side how far would you expect to see them travel? Last summer when they were feeding good I would see them coming from maybe 100 ft. If they didn’t get all the way before I drove by to the next spot they would switch directions. I never saw them coming from the other side and maybe this was because they had me trained instead of me training them.

It depends on the species and size of fish you are feeding. I feed BG in 3'-4' water max. Hybrid Striped Bass can be fed in 10' water depth. Throw the feed where wind will blow it away from shore, not back to it.

We set the feeder to feed in relatively shallow water that slopes to deeper water roughly from 2 to eventually 5 feet.

We were also strategic to not put the feeder near our gravel spawning areas. I thought this was important. I didn't want an influx of feeding fish disturbing active beds.

I also put the feeder in a place that was easy to access. Maintenance, cleaning, refilling of food, and fishing near the feeder was a priority when considering location.

Feeding CNBG from small to 8” in size mainly for good forage for the Bass a mix of
Florida and Northern.
On a 3 acre pond what percentage of the CNBG do you think will come to the feeder.
Could someone please weigh in on if I should continue to feed manually in a few other locations.

About once a week I walk around the pond and feed by hand too. I only target areas that have heavy structure and are known to hold fish. I don't think I have to do this by any means because the feeder is doing the heavy lifting. I do it because it's fun to see the fish come up. I think it also helps me confirm areas that are holding fish.

My only reservation would be overfeeding. Overfeeding could cause poor water quality, so I just do it once a week.

Mine want the food as far out and toward the middle of the pond as I can throw it. When they're really hungry they'll come closer to the bank but if gets into shallow water (18" or less) it's usually wasted.

Throwing it by hand and having a Texas Hunter Fish Feeder throw the food is two completely different things. My TH feeder will throw the food a good 75 feet out from the shoreline.

But I have the Paleolithic Hunter feeder which can out range even the fabled Texas Hunter.

Well okay it's just a scoop from dollar tree but it about doubles my range.

I use a Chuckit tennis ball thrower to fling Endurance halfway across my pond.

I have caught a CC, 20 minutes after my feeder went off, at the far end of a 15 acre pond that had a gut full of fish food, so I do believe they travel a good ways to the feeder.

I also hand feed a couple times a week in other areas of the pond when I come by there, to the point that I will see ripples in the water of fish coming in from all directions when I pull up in my truck.

But then I don't have my feeder going off for a very long period, its not an attempt to feed them all they can eat, what gets thrown from the feeder usually gets cleaned up in under a minute, churning the water and fighting for what they can get, it would cost too much to feed them as much as they can clean up.

Fish will travel a long way to get food. One feeder on 5 acres is plenty from a distance perspective. A reason to hand feed in several locations is so small fish feel safe in feeding in structure. Example it's one thing for a 12-inch LMB to travel 400 yards to feed (no big deal) but for a 3-inch BG it is a different story. Feeder placement is guided by goals. For general feeding I put structure (xmas trees) in place to give small fish a secure area to feed with some food landing outside the structure for larger fish.

So now you’re just bragging, I just use a dustpan that my wife is still looking for

Thanks that answers my questions but brings up some. I haven’t thought of. I never see any bass feeding on the pellets that I’m throwing. I will see them bust the brim when they’re feeding good. It may be the feed. It’s a partial sinking feed aquamax sport fish MVP
I primarily got it because it has some small pellets mixed in for the small brim. Any suggestions on a feed that may be better preferably I could pick up from tractor supply to save shipping.

TSC food is actually much more expensive than the food that you have shipped in (like Endurance) if you look at the pounds of fish grown per pound of fish food thrown out into the pond. In the test that I did years ago, it took 4# of TSC food to equal 1# of Optimal (now Endurance).

LMB won't eat fish food unless they have been trained from hatching to eat fish food (feed trained fish). While some pond owners see non feed trained LMB eating pellets, it's typically less than 10% of the LMB in the pond.

Personally I don't like to throw sinking food because I want to see how much food is consumed. If I want to throw sinking food I will hydrate some and throw it out by hand.

Pro tip (from another member): Do not use your wife's coffee grinder on fish pellets to make tiny pellets and meal to feed the small fish and fry in your pond. If your wife retains ANY taste buds, she will catch you.

Does that hold true for the purina
Sportfish MVP as well. Just shipping to TSC to save on shipping cost.
I’m going to have to change to floating feed to use in feeder anyway so a good time to make a change. What would you suggest in a floating feed to feed CNBG of varies sizes?

Check with your local Purina dealer. Like esshup said it's expensive from TSC. I'm getting MVP from my local Purina dealer for $54 per 50# bag. It's not far from me so worth a little gas.

ArkieJig, try a bag of 5MM Bluegill & 8MM LMB feed from Endurance. I am feeding a lot of 1 pound CNBG, they love the 8MM size pellet. On the next order I am going to buy a bag of the 22MM to try as well.

Thanks for all the great responses. I checked for Purina distributors in my area and it showed tractor supply farmers co-op and a few others but the pricing wasn’t any better. Paying $72 from tractor supply. I’m going to change to a floating feed so there may have been another Purina that would be better priced. Called endurance and I believe spoke to the owner very helpful and stated that the posted price includes shipping so I’m going to try them.