Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding How small is too small for a feeder?

As I mentioned, once the ground's dry enough; we're building a small pond on my west TN in-law's farm. It will likely end up around 3/4ac. The plan is to stock BG and LMB to see how big of LMB we can raise.

1. Is this too small to bother with a feeder?
2. If not, which feeder would you recommend? It would need to be battery and/or solar powered.
3. Same two questions for an aerator.

Thanks!

P.S. For some reason, the maggot dumpers interest me. I'll have to set a couple up. I'm sure I'll have no trouble catching/shooting a few coons and possums to provide the "nest".

3/4 acre is not too small for feeding, whether or not you want a feeder depends upon price and the likelihood of regular hand feeding (I enjoy the latter 5-6 days a week).

I must salute the intestinal fortitude of a man contemplating putting a maggot box on his in-laws property (and perhaps question the judgement).

Then I'd go with feed trained LMB. Less standing crop of fish needed in the pond to grow the LMB, so easier to manage. I'm partial to Texas Hunter and Vertex since we are dealers for both. Both are pretty much bullet proof.

The one caveat with TH feeders is that they don't make a model that can throw the 22mm LMB pellets.

Their house is a long way from the ponds. Plus, they have several horses. Shocked my dumb city ass the 1st time I went through their gate. So they're plenty used to not great smells.

Personally, I would still get a feeder even if my pond was small for this reason alone:

Timing and consistency.

There is no way, even with best intentions, that we can feed as consistently as a feeder will. What if it rains? Out of town? Busy with life? Sick?

I think it's an investment worth the cost.

Timing and consistency.

There is no way, even with best intentions, that we can feed as consistently as a feeder will. What if it rains? Out of town? Busy with life? Sick? ML10

There is no way I can argue any point!!

I enjoy the hand feeding & the observations I can make. If I am gone for 5 days the CNBGs can just suck it up. They will survive & more appreciate the feeding when I return. Self-centered little bastards.

Feeding pellets fewer days just means less pond production which is okay. Feeding fish in an open pond, any amount of feeding helps supplement fish growth. If ones goals for the fishery is not major maximum fish production, then with just occasional irregular feeding, some is IMO better than none.

However as noted below, Feeding fish foods and / or adding live foods, these increase the nutrient fertility inputs into the pond. Ponds naturally accumulate nutrients that have basically no way of leaving the pond. Ponds are nutrient fertility collection basins (nutrient traps). . Increased nutrients means more plant growth of some sort in the pond be it phytoplankton, filamentous algae and or rooted submerged plants that can eventually become problematic.

I just supplementally feed, I want the predators to chow on the BG in the pond since the LMB are getting pretty thinned out. If there are too many 3"-6" BG in the pond in late May I'll start using the Fyke Net and thinning out some.

Great advice from the experts here. In a pond that small could the fertilization from over feeding be an issue? Feed is basically fertilizer, if it's eaten of not.

I doubt that excess feed would be a problem.

Agree with Bill. Feeding in a small pond is a good idea as part of the management process.

I'd like to put a feeder at the small pond, 1/5ac; where we're focusing on bluegill. It would need to be solar or battery powered. I'm looking for a small one. Or maybe a couple of koi pond feeders? Any recommendations? Thanks.

Smallest version of TH or American Feeder work well on my smaller .25 AC ponds. Raising LMB in a smaller BOW [.75 AC] can be challenging due to reproduction/population management unless you allow for lots of culling. Consider ladder stocking female LMB from American Sportfish - multiple year classes - multiple species forage base [BG, GSH, ect]. I have several clients managing female LMB fisheries and they result in significantly less management efforts - they seem pretty happy with results thus far in terms of size of LMB attained in smaller waters.

Or......

Go for a SMB/YP/RES/BRES fishery and supplement with pellet feeding and GSH, PK Shrimp, various minnow species [BNM, SFS, LCS]. Dare to be unique, create a Canadian shield fishery in TN.

Thanks for the info. I'm looking to try one on the pond where I want to focus on BG. Any differences on the two? I assume I'll be using small feed at 1st, is one better for that? It has well established BG and LMB populations. We'll be pulling the larger LMB.

Let me introduce another fish stocking option, if you are interested in seeing how big of bass you can grow in a Tennessee 3/4 ac pond. TJ suggests using ladder stocking of Female LMB that is a good option however obtaining all female LMB is a definite CHALLENGE of getting them for stocking. There is also the possibility of somehow getting an unintended, eager, fertile male LMB introduced with all the lady LMB.

Instead why not initially stock HSB and specklebelly sunfish (SBS as Hyb BGXRES) or less preferably regular HBG (BGXGSF) with initially some FHM and some golden shiners (GSH). IMO this type of fishery could be very good even with casual hand feeding of pellets and not needing an automatic feeder. I prefer use of SBS because regular HBG can due to lack of management result in a population of 'look alike' green sunfish that I think and find are a very problematic type of panfish in ponds. Whereas the SBS if numbers are not well managed revert more toward a regular bluegill strain or type of panfish. Use of hybrid sunfish are often occasionally when needed restocked , but do not necessarily need to be ladder stocked.
Both HSB and SBS are available in TN via Jones Lake Management.
https://joneslakemanagement.com/locations
https://shop.joneslakemanagement.com/collections/fish-stocking

The main point of using HSB is there no reproduction nor possibility of over population from them and the HSB will grow fast and big with less competition if you keep them well fed using the shiners, good habitat to sustain shiners and use of good quality fish pellets. The limited number of recruits from the SBS or HBG will provide some limited forage fish to sustain the HSB when you are not feeding pellets. Start the HSB and other fishes on small appropriate sized pellets and then when the HSB achieve 16"-18" use the large hand throw 22mm -1" pellets from Endurance or Purina companies. With this plan expect to grow the HSB to tackle busting sizes of 7 to 8 lbs or maybe even bigger with good management.

One of the key items is to not initially stock too many HSB and over crowd them thus causing poor water quality and fish kills. Bob Lusk's "Happy Water" always grows the best quality fisheries.. If you want big HSB the quickest, I would not stock more than 16 - 18 in 3/4 ac. IMO ladder stocking would not really be needed unless unexpected deaths of HSB occur due to inappropriate angler activities. HSB do not tolerate well being 'jaw jerked' during the warmest summer months. Feed them and let them grow great during mid summer and do your fishing during cooler water periods - Spring and Fall.
See and learn from this lengthy thread about growing HSB.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92629#Post92629


Other PB Forum members are welcome to provide alternate stocking numbers and ideas. If you use regular BG instead of hyb BG, I think this would put undue stress on the pond's carrying capacity due to the tendency of BG crowding and the panfish as a group would not be as big of an average size.

Ultimately "down the road" if this plan did not work or does not meet your goals, you have the definite option and ability of always later stocking of the pure BG and LMB. However if you first stock BG/LMB you really do not have a good nor easy ability of success to later stock and have good use of the HSB / hybrid BG option as a viable fishery.

FYI I talked to the producer of the Specklebellies and the only ones they have available now are smalls. (i.e. 1"-2.5"). I have had a 70# Texas Hunter Feeder on a 1/10 ac pond.

Thanks for those ideas. You guys are great.

I believe the TH feeders from Canada are manufactured by Tim Hortons and sling donuts to the hungry fishies!