Here's a personal observation that may, or may not, have application to any other situations.
I have a feeder on the pond that I gave to my Dad. The yellow perch eat almost exclusively pellets, and the bluegill probably get 1/3 to 1/2 of their nutrition from pellets. There is an excellent population of large invertebrates that the bluegill eat at their leisure, but quite a few of them slurp some pellets in the evening.
It is virtually impossible to catch a bluegill on a pellet imitation in this pond. My Dad and I have spent hours and hours concocting, inventing and dreaming up pellet imitations and ways to hook pellets. It's fun, and a great way to spend time together laughing and enjoying the weather and watching the feeding In about twenty total man-hours of trying, we caught a total of two bluegill using these methods all of last year. The bluegill are way too selective to the way the pellet floats, drifts, smells etc.
So why is this any different than using an artificial minnow imitation to fool and capture bluegill that are well fed on minnows? I don't see any difference. If I stock minnows in my pond, or any other forage fish, then use an imitation of that minnow to catch a fish isn't this the essence of fishing?
I wholeheartedly and emphatically disagree with the premise that all bluegill are easy to catch at a feeder. The bigger, smarter ones are significantly harder to catch in many circumstances. Not all circumstances, but enough to not make a blanket statement concerning how simple it is. There seems to be an underlying implication that a person who fishes around a feeder is dumb, or in some way cheating, which I think is unfair.
I'll give a blanket invitation to fish any of my ponds around a feeder with a pellet imitation and catch a trophy bluegill.
Good luck.
