heard so much about supplimental feeding I wanted to get thoughts on using a feeder on a pre-established pond 1 acre in size with LMB Black crappie, Channel Cats, Bluegill... My question is if members think if these fish types would feed off pellets if never exposed to them in the past.....thanks for the feedback....was planning on butting a tripod feeder in 8ft of water on a feeding schedule....cant put anything on land...too many bears...

I expect they will self train OK. At least the bluegills and cats will. The bass never will and I don't know about crappie.

My pond is 40 years old and 15 acres. I bought it almost two years ago, and started feeding in just one area. The blue gill definitely figured it out, and the ones I catch in that area are probably 30% larger on average than those caught in other areas of the pond. I have two bass (out of how many thousand in a pond that size) that come eat. I've never seen any cats eating but they might stay deeper where I can't see them.

Even if each species of fish doesn't take to the feed directly, feeding is still a huge benefit. The fish that do eat the pellets directly gro faster and are more health, spawn heavier and provide more forage for the fish not eating the pellets. Excess feed provides more fertility for you to feed on and the feeding frenzy when pellts are distributed provides an opportunity for non-pellet feeding fish to grab an easier meal of a feeding fish...it's a win, win situation.

Myself and 2 other owners on a private 17 acre
lake purchased feeders recently. The catfish
and bluegill basically "swarm" around the
feeders when they release the food.
Hopefully it will help fatten them up.
I do have a small problem because two ducks
that hang around and also seem to love the feeder
food and the ducks are like PacMan if they are around.

dracor, if your bears are hungry enough the tripod probably won't help, they swam out and pulled mine over, but if you want it your welcome to mine, it's made with 10 ft. poles.


Now I have a rope running 80ft. across a narrow part of the pond between 2 trees 15ft. up. The rope runs thru a metal clothesline wheel at one end so I can raise and lower the feeder so it can be refilled from the canoe.
It's worked so far, I don't think the bears want to hand over hand (paw over paw) that far.
If nothing else the bluegill should benefit from feeding and might train some of the other species to feed as well.

Bears? Whoa. I guess I'll shut up about the Great Blue Herons.

AP, grease the cable.

Dave that's a good idea, but if I grease the rope the Herons might fall off.

If you grease the ropes bears will chew on it learning how to get a big meal after there greasy snack

Especially when you use bacon grease! Or they'll learn to do this:

I like the tripod idea, except I would have to put it in deeper water considering what I'm dealing with....lol

It's worth a shot, maybe your bears don't like to swim.
If you decide you want the tripod sometime let me know, you could add longer pipe on the legs.

The one good thing about putting the feeder over the water is you can use the cheaper digital rotary feeders, and if the bears get it you'll be glad you didn't have 200 bucks in a feeder.

Appreciate the offer! It will be interesting to see if they like the water...its funny how they can poke around all summer but then disappear once the hunting season arrives.