Originally Posted by FishinRod
jpsdad, (and everyone else)

I have seen lots of discussions about supplying forage that is the correct size for LMB. However, I have not seen the equivalent discussion for large BG.

What do you think the large BG are utilizing for their forage diet in this pond (or in any trophy BG pond)?

I think all BG have tiny mouths, so I do not have a good grasp on how gape size changes their feeding habits as they get larger. Do 3-4" BG eat essentially the same diet (species AND size) as 8"+ BG?

Fishing Rod, I think 8" BG can eat things that are larger than 4" BG. Just based on allometry the anticipated increase would be around 4 times the cross sectional area of the prey. I'm not sure allometry applies, however. I haven't taken the measurements but just looking at smaller BG their mouth size does look proportionately larger relative to length than mature BG. Just judging by casual viewing but not applying metrics.


We talk about LMB expending energy to catch their food. Is the diet of BG dumb, or do BG also expend significant energy to catch and consume their forage?

A BG's suction when taking a food item is remarkable and most smaller prey are unable to swim out of the flow. Near the surface you can hear an audible pop. It takes energy but BG feed all the time as they slowly move around. Minnows definitely take more energy as they have to get close to a creature that is already running away. But if they can get close enough and the minnow is small enough ... gets eaten. A minnow is significant food, highly significant food. Read Swingle's findings on BG with GAMs, for example.

All of which is relevant to my final question. If a good fertile pond is producing trophy BG, would supplemental feeding be unlikely to increase the size of the trophy BG?

The fertility of a pond actually has nothing to do with producing trophy BG. It is far easier to grow a trophy BG in an pond of good water clarity than it is to grow them in rich water. The reason is that BG and LMB benefit from clear water. It helps them find prey and the better water quality keeps them healthy with plenty of O2. All the major state and world records were caught in clear water lakes. So the water doesn't have to be fertile.

The question is too short sighted I think. Were I to venture a guess, it would under most circumstances increase the size of the largest fish already present. But if the feeding causes less clarity and if more BG are recruited than if unfed the demand for food increases substantially. What about those BG? How much feed is it going to take to make them trophies? I've caught a lot really nice BG in ponds that are not managed but rather simply have a natural population structure such that the numbers of BG are very limited. That's really all it takes and in this condition large BG can be grown year after year. This cannot be said long term where BG are too populated to grow without supplemental feeding. There is a breaking point and it isn't hard to find and experience it.

Even if all of your trophy BG are over 100% RW, would supplemental feeding increase the number of trophy BG or is that too dependent upon all of the other pond fishery variables?

Again, I think its questionable and kind of short sighted. A person can expect gain according to the weight of the feed that is fed. It depends on the number of fish eating the feed and how it is distributed. So yes it is possible in the short term to boost the weight of individual trophies with feed.

A person should look at feed/fertilization as a means to grow a greater biomass of fish than the pond could otherwise support. So in a lean pond, of course, feed will allow one to grow more large fish than it could otherwise grow. But in a eutrophic pond feed can cause many other problems so yes ... its a combination of fishery variables IMHO. In the end, whatever food a pond has, whether natural or artificial, the size that fish can achieve is not dependent on whether the food was natural or artificial. It depends on the number of mouths competing for that limited food.