I'm new to this forum. Has been interesting reading all the good stuff. Me and my local fisheries guy here in Minnesota have been sharing notes on feeding methods. He's interested in demand feeders since he's never tried one. I have one in my pond but it only works at times when the fish are really aggressive. He suggested something I've never heard of. He calls it a maggot pole. The idea is that you install a expanded metal platform on top of one or more posts driven out in the pond. The platform is above the water a ways. On the platform you put every manner of road kill you can find. Before the maggots turn into flies they leave the carcass to dig into the ground. Of course instead they fall into the water. Anyone tried this?

It's nothing new. However I hope you don't live to close to close to the pond. When a breeze comes out of the right direction it may not be too pleasant of an odor

Personally I think buying pellets is a lot more pleasant than picking up roadkills. :rolleyes: But to each his own.

A better demand feeder is made out of sewer pipe with holes. Cap off the bottom, secure it to a dock or something and fill with pellets. According to some that have tried it, fish really do come to the holes and suck out the wet pellets and goo.

BZ and DD :

You have hit upon a grest topic.I would like to hear more about the idea. I have read about the road kill method. For it to be on demand { on the fish's demand} you would have to have a way for the fish to get maggots on demand. How does that work ?

DD the pipe method sounds like it might work. I wonder if you tried to feed BG this way would the bass figure it out and wait on the BG to feed and then attack. If so then it may turn out to be a negative stimulus . See the other posts this forum on bass waiting around feeders to attack BG . These posts relate that bass in some cases can not be caught because they only eat BG around feeders. Lures and even live bait won't work.

Does anyone else have any experience with the idea of on demand feeders or want to add to our limited knowledge ?

Thanks --ewest

Come on now! On demand feeders. Do peoople have to spoil their fish like they do their kids and domestic pets now? Ours kids always knew to eat at meal time. :rolleyes:

The best on-demand meal is forage fish, it's easy once you get it established, it's the first lesson in pond management/patience.

p.s. While I have a pretty good stomach for things, I prefer to eliminate the visual of my dinner fillet chowing down on maggots

Please, Burgermeister. Don't you think fish, like children, deserve an after-school snack?

To those who find maggot boxes somewhat less than appealing: as long as I have a farm, I will be dealing with smallish carcasses (and their resultant odors). I would be putting them to good use in a maggot box over the pond IF my family didn't use it for swimming - the fur and bones is a little too "Yewww!" even for me, if I'm in the water.

Burgermeister, I've been pampering my fish for years. At least on this go round I'm not naming them.

I first read of the road kill method in Mother Earth News 20 or so years ago. They said to get a road killed possum and suspend it from a long, stout pole over the pond. Maggots would feed fish and then drop into the water when it rotted for further nutrition. YUCK!

Ewest, I suppose the bass might get some of the BG but I don't think it would be much of a problem. There wouldn't be the feeding frenzy that seems to attract the bass when pellets are tossed or broadcast. The guy that does it lives in Texas and has about a 20 acre pond. He has been written up in Pond Boss several times about his 10 pound bass. At one time his picture was taken with his 4 or 5 year old son with a 7 or so pound bass that the boy caught. Can't remember his name. I tried to get him to adopt me.

My dad and I used the road kill, maggot fish feeding method back 36 years ago (1969). We put the road kill, or hunters dead ground hogs on old refrigerator racks attached between two fence posts pounded into the pond bottom. We had several of these feeders in a 3/4 ac pond. My dad traveled highways every workday and always found plenty of road kill. Cecil is right it did get smelly down wind of the racks. This feeding method is not an on-demand type of feeder nor can it be made into an on-demand feeder.

Fish did congregate under feeders when maggots were dropping off decaying animals.

Personally now I prefer the pellet feeding method.

One of the problems I see with demand feeders is that ducks learn to use these feeders.

DD :

Thanks for the idea of the pipe on demand feeder.I am interested in using one for observation purposes. I have a location with good visability from a bank 4-5 feet above the water into water that goes from 1ft. to 8 ft. in depth within 10 ft. of the bank. Lots of large BG and bass frequent the area. If I put the pipe in this area I should be able to observe the BG and see if the bass use it as a feeding station. Maybe I can determine if its the BG feeding frenzy {activity} that trigger the bass or if it is the near motionless { easy & distracted prey} BG waiting on/eating food. Over time I may be able to see if the bass learn {become conditioned} and the BG react to the possible negative stimulus.

Do you know the size , number and pattern of the holes in the pipe . I have some 4in. pvc pipe that will work. A weighted plunger will keep the floating fish food at the water end of the pipe.

If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this let me know.

Thanks -- ewest

Not to make light of this post, but Dave D., I don't believe you.

I think you did name your fish.

Rest assured knowing that there are 12 step programs for this kind of thing.

I just remembered the name of the pond owner; David Reed of Fairfield, Texas. Nice guy.

I expect 4 inch pipe would work. I doubt that you would need any weight. It ought to drop down due to its weight. A plunger might force it out through the drain holes. I would also cap off the top. Its not much fun to dig a dead squirrel out of the pipe. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure what would keep squirrels and coons from chewing through the pipe to get at the feed.

Sunil, it didn't take all of the 12 steps to learn the error of my ways. To my little girls it was like eating their kitty cats.

Someone asked about info from those with other types of demand feeders. I also have a hopper type demand feeder. One of those with the long rod sticking out of the bottom that the fish are supposed to tap and then get feed. It works some times but I've never been able to get them to consistently use the things. I think in most cases a wind or a bump to the dock will cause some feed to fall and as the fish go after it they bump the rod and get more. If there are enough active fish they can accidently keep the think going for a while. Anyone know how to train the fish to use this?

Hello.

Interesting.

I will try it, but with floating box, I will try it with 3oo Yellow-perch fry from my small pond that have never been fed with the fish food.
A+

Az - I think your homemade disk-plate feeder is a better idea and will be more successful than a normal demand feeder especially true when trying to feed train fish. Demand feeder IMO will be better used with fish that are already pellet trained.

As far as using a maggot feeder, been there done that about 50 years ago!. This does work feeding fish but I think it is not really consistent at adding maggots unless you have ready constant access to roadkill. Plus roadkill gets pretty smelly downwind. Instead of road kill just use chopped cooked meat, fish/shrimp, clams, crayfish, or worms, maggots mixed in with pellets and used on your pellet disk feeder.

Hello.

It's an experience that I want to do with these 300 fry for fun the pond is ready for it.

My box in fact are tanks of about 2x3feet that will float.

The food for maggot will be the rest of the perch when I make my filet.
A+

Hello.

I would like to know if there are members who practice this technique with bucket to feed their fish.

I looked on Youtube there is not much.

Otherwise I have some idea, I must prepare my bucket quickly, the fry grow very quickly.
A+

I love spicy boiled crawfish, but try not to think of what they've been eating before I tuck in.

James it’s the same with chickens….. they’ll eat anything

Cajuns can make almost anything taste good!

I use several of the larval feeders. The trick to keeping the smell down is to build a float with your screen on top and use a plastic bin over the feed material with just a few holes drilled in it to allow additional flies in. But first place the food material by an active dumpster to make sure that there is plenty of activity. I use carp carcasses in about a week and a half I will have nothing but skin and bones of a fifteen pound carp with almost no smell

Could you post pics? I deal with dead animals all the time and have considered to this before but just haven't taken that last step to get it going.

Don't leave out a pig, they will eat everything as well. and are pretty tasty, but like anthropic said,, with a little cajun seasoning a lot of things get pretty tasty.

I used to think my catfish fillets had to be fried but here lately I been covering them lightly with some blackened seasoning and putting them on the blackstone, in my case a pitboss, griddle, man you talk about extremely tasty! and I know the bait Im using to catch them is horrific, cant imagine any thing consuming that and still be good to eat.

G this is true- you can’t starve a wild pig . They are also tasty, we eat lots of ‘‘em from here either ground up or BBQ

Ok I will post some pics when I get back up there and figure out how to post. Basically it is a ring of foam a little bit bigger than your plastic tote with chicken wire on top I use a layer of thin plywood on top of the foam then the chicken wire this allows me to cut strips of foam and screw it to the plywood so I don't have to waste any foam for the cut out tie a line to it and something to anchor it and you are all set

Thanks cb100. The interesting thing with the carp skeletons & scale covered skins is that most of the calcium and phosphorus content of the Carp can be excluded from the pond after removing from the feeder.

The resultant larva would be high in protein and lipids but low in ash. The effect would be feed that would contribute more to fatter fish but less to longer fish. I wonder how this plays into the species mix of pond plants and other veggies in the food chain?

I'm thinking this would be an outstanding way to dispose of the endless supply of trash-pandas around our place as well as cull fish that aren't exactly eaters. No cost and nutrients aren't removed from the BOW, just repurposed back into it.

Now the trick is make it work for me. It's got to be easy and convenient, otherwise I won't make it habit. I've done several searches on the interwebs but not finding many examples, just a lot of "the old guys say to hang a carcass so larva drops into the water" type of statements. I'm thinking either a swinging arm or maybe a floater attached to a rope n pulley. + and - to either. Suppose I won't know until I build something.

Do a google search on "black soldier fly larvae generator".

There is a mountain of information available on the topic.