First year I have a REAL GOOD chance of a major lmb spawn. Recently caught several bass on the banks that appear to be spawning. Bloody tails and all. One six pounder was FAT FULL of eggs and only 20 inch long! My water is within 3 inches of being full pool and is up in my shoreline grass and saw grass. Minnows EVERYWHERE in the grass so a good hiding area for bass fry to hide. My question is this...I have thousands of cnbg that feed at the feeder in the am and pm. But...I still am feeding only one second twice a day. So if I really amp up the feeding program for the bluegill especially during this crucial bass spawn time will it keep them from trying to feed on my lmb fry more?? The cnbg I catch are fat and healthy. Are they oportunist feeders like a lmb? Or am I just going to waiste feed and have fat bluegill and they will still eat all my bass fry? I just hate to blow what looks like my BEST spawning season yet in my 2 acre pond in its 6 years of having fish in it!!

I would certainly increase the feed amount. A lot! I doubt that very many of the fish are even getting a pellet.

I'm with Dave on this one.

I have to agree with esshup and Dave. The only thing is I think with that many cnbg they will eat you out of house and home. I am not sure you can fill them up. Will eat all you can throw. I went four years before I had successful LMB reproduction or survival due to too many cnbg in the pond. I had to add additional adult LMB to the pond before I had LMB fry survival

The supplemental stocking of the adult LMB seems to be a pretty good solution to the problem of LMB recruitment.

I remember you having that problem Tracy. I did stock about 20 10-12 inch lmb from my buddy near Nacogdoches last year. they are a Camelot bell strain. Can't wait to see what happens when they cross with my huge pure Florida strain lmb!!

James, I am delighted to hear the good news about your bass! I do wonder a bit if Florida strain, including Camelot Bell, might be more vulnerable to panfish pressure when they try to spawn. Florida LMB tend to be less aggressive in general, which makes for longer life but also tougher fishing when they get big.

I have not seen any data/study that indicates that Fla LMB are less aggressive wrt spawning or fry protection. Yes on taking lures and feeding. But they do feed enough to get very fat and large.
If I were going to try to feed as contemplated to help LMB fry survival I would up the number of feedings a lot but keep it at 1 second . I would do so when you confirm that female LMB have dropped eggs and do so for 1 mth. Also you could help survival of LMB fry by placing thick cover a few feet (10) from the bed. Xmas trees would be good even if they float but are staked down. The idea is to keep the BG near the feeder. Plus they have small stomachs so frequent feeding may keep some (bigger ones) full.
This assumes there are not so many BG that the LMB sense a futile spawn attempt which is what usually leads to no LMB spawn - not predation after spawning.

I did up the feed to 3 bursts of feed for one second each. 3 bursts in the am and 3 bursts in pm. Each burst is 5 minutes apart. I can up those to 2-3 second bursts if needed. Fortunantly all the lmb I caught Saturday were all spawning on the opposite side of the pond from the feeder. I do have a lot of vegetation for babies to hide in. And it is all away from the feeder also. My feeder shoots out into my deepest part of the pond.

James, it would not hurt to add some additional cover near the spawning area. You said there is vegetation for the fry to hide in but it's pretty easy to add some cedars along the shoreline for additional cover. I would add them just outside the 2' depths along the spawning area. Todd Overton recommended I add 5 brush piles to help my cnbg spawn because I was short on 3" sized bg. I added 9 brush piles and after that, I had bg most everywhere to feed the lmb. I would expect the same when needing an area to protect the lmb fry. After the spawn, you can remove them if you want. I am assuming you have some cedars around the property or know of someone that will let you cut some down at their place.