Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Feeding going into the winter

Central Kansas
Pond was stocked in a few stages September - November 2023
My fish eat Aquamax MVP + hand thrown 9.5mm pellets at night
Morning 7:15 and 7:25. 10 seconds each.
Noon 3 seconds ( they really aren’t interested at this time) more feeding the baby BG and FHM
Evening 7:10 and 7:20, 10 seconds each + 2.5# of hand throw
Very lightly stocked 4.5 acre pond
The fish clean up the morning and evening food in less than 2 minutes
Question is, coming into the fall and winter should I increase the feed times or let it be?
BG, SMB and LMB have a good shape and weight to them
Yes - most of my BG look like the photo. 7-7.5” and all over half a pound
HSB look good and are growing well but are under weight according to the RW chart
CC - haven’t been able to catch one in a month but were growing like weeds.
If there should be an increase in food, how much? I know the rule of thumb is what they can clean up in 5 minutes or 10 minutes. I really believe I would have to set the timer for a minute to make that work. Or is maybe some of this food just sinking and I don’t know it ?

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FYI - see the upcoming PB mag issue on the need for fish to pack on extra weight in the Fall just before (month or so) water temps drop.

Because fish are cold blooded they have optimum growth temps in warm spring and early summer waters , then growth slows and can stop or even reverse in extremely hot summer temperatures. Then as the water starts to cool in Fall metabolism ramps back up as optimum temperatures occur again.

In order to maintain condition Largemouth Bass (and other fish) maximize caloric growth in the Fall, store visceral fat, and minimize active metabolic demands in preparation for Winter.

Now is a good time to take advantage of the fall feeding frenzy.

Challenge Accepted!



Great looking fish Jason!

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Perfect.
It was just brought to my attention that the way the Topic of my post read and the actual question itself in the body of the post were kind of confusing.
Was definitely implying, what should I do now (fall) as far as feeding so the fish stay fat during the winter
Tonight I increased everything 50% and going to leave it until the feeding slows.

That's a great nugget from ewest.