Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Where to set Fish Feeder

I’ve been manually throwing feed in 7 locations around a 3 acre pond once a day. With good
activity from the CNBG at each. I have ordered a feeder and have started feeding from the location where I plan on putting the feeder twice a day. Not getting much activity and probably throwing too much of the Sportfish MVP. My questions are how long before I start getting good numbers feeding? Do I totally quit feeding at the other locations?
With the feeder somewhat centrally located on the North side how far would you expect to see them travel? Last summer when they were feeding good I would see them coming from maybe 100 ft. If they didn’t get all the way before I drove by to the next spot they would switch directions. I never saw them coming from the other side and maybe this was because they had me trained instead of me training them.

About once a week I walk around the pond and feed by hand too. I only target areas that have heavy structure and are known to hold fish. I don't think I have to do this by any means because the feeder is doing the heavy lifting. I do it because it's fun to see the fish come up. I think it also helps me confirm areas that are holding fish.

My only reservation would be overfeeding. Overfeeding could cause poor water quality, so I just do it once a week.

But I have the Paleolithic Hunter feeder which can out range even the fabled Texas Hunter.

Well okay it's just a scoop from dollar tree but it about doubles my range.

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So now you’re just bragging, I just use a dustpan that my wife is still looking for

We set the feeder to feed in relatively shallow water that slopes to deeper water roughly from 2 to eventually 5 feet.

We were also strategic to not put the feeder near our gravel spawning areas. I thought this was important. I didn't want an influx of feeding fish disturbing active beds.

I also put the feeder in a place that was easy to access. Maintenance, cleaning, refilling of food, and fishing near the feeder was a priority when considering location.

It depends on the species and size of fish you are feeding. I feed BG in 3'-4' water max. Hybrid Striped Bass can be fed in 10' water depth. Throw the feed where wind will blow it away from shore, not back to it.

TSC food is actually much more expensive than the food that you have shipped in (like Endurance) if you look at the pounds of fish grown per pound of fish food thrown out into the pond. In the test that I did years ago, it took 4# of TSC food to equal 1# of Optimal (now Endurance).

LMB won't eat fish food unless they have been trained from hatching to eat fish food (feed trained fish). While some pond owners see non feed trained LMB eating pellets, it's typically less than 10% of the LMB in the pond.

Personally I don't like to throw sinking food because I want to see how much food is consumed. If I want to throw sinking food I will hydrate some and throw it out by hand.

Thanks for all the great responses. I checked for Purina distributors in my area and it showed tractor supply farmers co-op and a few others but the pricing wasn’t any better. Paying $72 from tractor supply. I’m going to change to a floating feed so there may have been another Purina that would be better priced. Called endurance and I believe spoke to the owner very helpful and stated that the posted price includes shipping so I’m going to try them.