Originally posted by Jack_Flash1949:
After cleaning those fish I got a bucket of feed and threw some out on the water. There was not ONE fish that came up to the fish food. It was nearly 2 weeks before they were back to normal in eating the feed.
Has anyone else noticed this kind of behavior in their fish?
Jack_Flash1949,
Absolutely, positively yes!
Because of what you observed and what I've also observed many times in fish behavior, I never use pellets as bait. I also prohibit fishing at the feeders(grandchildren are the only exception) simply because of the reverse conditioning it causes. If you feed fish for growth, conditioning them to avoid pellets(by using pellets as bait) just does not make a lot of sense to me.
Fish, at least all pond fish that I have observed over the years in my ponds, are subject to conditioning....some more than others. In my experience, in small ponds, the HBG is the least likely fish to get conditioned. At the other end of the spectrum, the HSB and the LMB are very easily conditioned to artificial lures/flys. LMB are, however, very vulnerable, very catchable with live bait(especially live small BG), even on repeated uses.
It doesn't win many friends by telling them that their expectations for being able to have great fishing action with frequent fishing times in small ponds are simply going to fail...but it's generally true. However, if you have infrequent fishing trips and the time spent fishing each trip is limited and in low light conditions, if you are very careful about your choice of baits, if you select fish for stocking that are less prone to conditioning, then small ponds can be as good or better than fishing anywhere, in my experience.
