Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Working to feed train bluegill and struggling

New member, taking the online Pondology class now and trying to learn.

We took on land in 2023 with an existing .6 acre pond with high clarity, good amount of aquatic plants (not excessive). Getting the land sorted out was my first priority and I started paying attention the pond in the spring of 2025. Our location is the Ozarks of North Central Arkansas. Middle of pond gets to 18' deep.

In fishing the pond in 2024, it became clear that we have a huge population of small, underweight smallmouth bass. So under advisement of the local extension agent, I began harvesting every small mouth under 12 inches caught. I did not record progress in 2025. So far in 2026 I have harvested 48. Ultimately, I will stock Largemouth to shift the population to focus the pond on Bluegill for kiddos and Largemouth for me.

In spring of 2025, fall of 2025, and spring of 2026 I stocked BlueGill, Redear, and Fathead minnows. I also stocked 2 grass carp in spring of 2025. The goal was to get a good forage base. My suspicion is I have set myself up to now have an overpopulation of bluegill if the spawn is successful, which I fear may not be due to water clarity from what I am learning here.

I do not have an aeration system. The quote came in at around 9,600, which the wife advises, "that hobby is getting out of control". Seems unreasonable but location requires solar so a nogo for me at this time.

Point of the post: One month ago, I installed a Texas Feeder stocked with a mix of Auquamax 400 and MVP. My hope was that by now I would see boiling action at feeding time. What I get is pretty tame and scattered action, though I can visually see BlueGill suspended under the feed. I am catching 8" to 4" on the rod as a reference for the current size class. Location is near one corner, distributed across the bedding zone out into 8' depth.

I have it set for 1 second throw at 0730, 1230, and 1930.

The AI Robot thing says I should make the following adjustments for now:
- Change schedule to 2 second throw at 1800 only.
- Build a 4x4 or 6x6 containment ring to capture some of the throw away from the shoreline to hold feed out in water longer.
- Change food to a strictly non-sinking formula (Endurance and utilize 3mm and 5mm mixed)

What say the experienced braintrust here?
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

BG "suspended under the feed" are likely eating the sinking portion of the MVP pellets. Everybody likes picking low hanging fruit. But BG will eat floating feed if that's what they get.

Unless you are feeding very small BG, I would switch to a mix of Aquamax 500 and 600. Even BG too small to swallow those pellets will peck at them and eat what comes off until they are gone.

Since you are auto-feeding, a feed ring will greatly help in containing pellets for consumption when it is windy. Size and place according to what pattern your feeder throws. I have used two different feed rings: a 6' square I made from 2" white PVC pipe, and a 10' circle made from used 1" black plastic well pipe (the latter cost me a 1" coupler and a couple of radiator clamps, as I used to drive past a well drilling company that threw out removed pipe on my way to work every day).

Feed time- and place-consistent, and the BG will figure it out.

Lots of people on the forum have wanted a good smallmouth bass pond, but failed because they could not achieve significant reproduction. The fact that you appear to have a stunted SMB pond indicates that you may have good reproduction in your pond. (Or the previous owners stocked too heavily.)

Would you consider culling SMB and perhaps creating an excellent SMB fishery over the next 3-5 years? That might be a LOT of fun, and then you can subsequently switch over to LMB.

There is a possibility that your BG could overpopulate during that period, even with lots of SMB predator pressure?

I am NOT an expert capable of evaluating that proposition. However, if you do want to contemplate the SMB option, then maybe start a new thread about that topic and you may get some actual expert guidance.

(Personally, I have fished for LMB much more than SMB, so perhaps I enjoy the feistiness of SMB more than someone that catches them all of the time.)

P.S. As regards your main question about feeding BG, I believe Theo has been feeding them for decades - so that is probably a lot of good advice for you to follow.

Thanks, Theo,

I will build a ring for sure and look at adjusting the feed on the next refill. Without aeration, should I focus more on evening feeding time due to oxygen depletion overnight, or do you not agree with the space robot's suggestion there?


Also, thank you, Fishing Rod, I have been tossing back the over 12" SMB for sure, as they are a fun fight on smaller tackle, so not opposed to seeing how they develop. The super skinny, big-headed, small ones will keep coming out. Though they have all been looking much healthier since I started stocking the fingerling BG, RE, FHM, and trying to get those populations established.

Advice much appreciated,

I feed in late afternoon or early evening (the fish in one pond actually prefer 5 pm; the fish in the other like it better at 7 pm), but that is primarily due to the fact that bigger fish (my priority) seem to prefer feeding in lower light when the sun is low and the feeding area is in the shade. Plus, when I was working and now that 0900 is retirement's earliest starting time, mornings have been unavailable.

Your aeration-less O2 question is a probable pointer to evening feeding.

SMB take to feed very readily, so you may be getting some good SMB growth from the feed.

If you have time, soaking the feed in water for 5 minutes or so makes it much more palatable to fish. Of course, to do this, you have to feed by hand.

If you have to cull SMB you could probably market them.

Predator fish (LMB, SMB etc.) have a low light vision advantage over BG ect. You can use that in your feeding plan to achieve the goals picked.

I forgot to add that if you do hydrate the feed, by hand, to get more fish onto the feed, they will then go on to utilize your auto-feeders.

I had the same problem when I first started feeding my BG... I though they would never figure it out but if you consistently feed them at the same times they will figure it out and be waiting.
I feed at 7 am, 1 pm and 7 pm, the BG are always prompt and they feed as aggressively at 1pm as they do early or late.
They learn the times well and if you throw feed between feedings very few will show up so stay consistent.
I don't really have to worry about too much feed, the turtles will clean up the leftovers, I think I've pulled all the turtles from every pond around me... sigh...

Ok, how about this? Here is my setup on a .6 acre pond with 18' deepest point towards the northern levee. Maybe I need to adjust my feeder location? Where would the experienced minds place a Texas feeder for the best impact on the Bluegill population?

TIA

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/15s6xBU6S92AJ8GfpSzR0lA1Ok9YFS4bH/view?usp=sharing[/img]

MacM -Would you post a picture of your "" a couple of the huge population of small, underweight smallmouth bass""?
Do you have any idea where the location in the pond on the map is the SMB main spawning area for the smallies?
Is there a pebble beach area where the BG and SMB both spawn? It is not marked on the map.

I would keep doing what you are now and ignore the AI assist (other than using a ring). Your plan seems good to me and you are having success. I like the idea of multi sized pellets including a larger pellet than 400. From the plat any of the corners would be a good place. I would not move the location until the fish are well trained. I would try to keep a well-conditioned SMB population if possible.

Hey Bill,

I don't have any photos of SMB in the water but I have culled 51 under 12" so far in 2026. I did not record the 2025 culling, but at the rate I catch them, I would guess in the 100 range. Anything over 12" goes back in unless the head is really large in comparison to the body. The spawn occurred this year along the gravelly area that starts about halfway down the south side and wraps all the way around to the northeast corner, then a short distance along the north end, maybe about an additional 30 feet. It felt like a good amount of area hosting the bluegill, redear, and I assume SMB spawn.

Thanks Ewest,

My feeder is currently on the east side about 30 feet from the SE corner, I have installed a 1" CPVC 5x5 foot "ring" and just loaded my first effort with a mix of Endurance 3mm and 5mm combined with the last of my Purina mix for a transition to a floating feed.

Mac - Next time fishing please take time to snap a picture of one or a couple of those skinny SMB. I don't have any pictures of noticeably skinny SMB and would like having one in my picture collection.

8' deep water is pretty deep to feed train BG.

I'd position the feeder to throw feed from the SW, W or NW corner of the pond out over 2'-4', maybe 5' deep water. From that end of the pond, prevailing winds will blow/drift pellets out deeper.

It's rare to have a SMB pond in Arkansas. Please post a picture and if you can't figure it out, e-mail it to me at scott@hoosierpondpros.com and I'll get it posted for ya. Check your PM's, I sent you one.

The trick to feed training BG in deeper water is to have good cover (like xmas tree piles) that go from bottom to surface. Here are a couple of pics.

Got a little time on the pond today and caught 3 smallmouth. They look much less emaciated than previous catches. 54 harvested in 2026. Photos attached. BlueGill and RedEar caught looked great.


[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n3fG8QJxN3R6dvpKQZBuUSh0yi6Cf__A/view?usp=drive_link[/img]

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IOjmkZgaqYDhsB36syO9mEMj_GXul2LP/view?usp=drive_link[/img]

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ibAC1Y2alTyNQCB68ngFAVNtGlGQmUZp/view?usp=drive_link[/img]

Does anyone know why the full editor and using the proper 'insert image link' here is broken? The pictures in the post above should be embedded in the post and are not. I tried reposting using the proper flow and they are not posting.

It works for me.

I believe you have to insert the url of just a picture only (run a quote on this post and you will see the picture link just ends in .jpg) without any framing or host info.

If you open the link from the quote, you will see only the picture. Compare that with what you get from opening the links inside the [brackets] above.

Within the brackets ( [ ] ), the "img" needs to be capitalized at the beginning and end.

The pictures have to be hosted somewhere on the web. I put pictures on Imgur, then put the links here. To show that the system that I described works, I grabbed one of your pictures and stored it on my imgur account (the account is free to set up). I will put it here and add it to your post.

That's not how the full editor does it. I think caps or lower case doesn't matter.

Theo, you are correct. I checked, the default setting is lower case.

Hmmm

It used to require caps, but maybe that changed......or I have no idea what I'm doing....

The images are hosted on the web so that is why I'm not sure why it isn't working.

oh, I think I follow now. The image isn't truly hosted online as an image as the address doesn't include a .jpg extension. It is a link to a 'viewer' page on google drive but doesn't allow access to the actual file. So it works the way he set it up, although if he wanted the picture to embed in his post he would have to have a different hosting program that hosts and allows access to the full file (.jpg or other)