Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

Attachments

Hmmm

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

Thank you,

Yes will keep culling the SMB each visit to the pond.

Largest SMB so far was at 14" and it looked good, caught on a 3 or 4 inch green sunfish I caught and culled.

My impression was that the SMB population was/is way out of control and the BG population was nearly wiped out. Restocking BG, RE, FHM seems to be working with the structure and cover I have also added. If I can get teh BG boiling on the feeder I will feel more confident.

Working to correct low Alkalinity as well but PH, etc all look good currently.

Here's some food for thought.

Largemouth Bass need fish to eat that are roughly 1/4 to 1/3 their body length (when talking about ovoid shaped panfish like Bluegill, Redear Sunfish, etc.) They can eat much longer fish that are more fusiform in shape (golden shiners, yellow perch, etc.

A Smallmouth Bass has a gape that is on average 15%-25% smaller than a Largemouth Bass of the same body length.

So, you need to manage the forage fish for that size range according to the size of the SMB in the pond. Yellow Perch and Golden Shiners are much more of a fusiform shape than Bluegill. Golden Shiners are readily available in Arkansas from the myriad of fish farms there, YP not so much - I don't know of ANY fish farms in AR that raise YP.

Also you could have all the food needed in the pond if the SMB don't have places to hang out and ambush their prey from. So, cover for the predators is important too. Just as important as having the correct numbers fo predators and keeping the predators thinned out.