Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait New CNBG pond

Al, how much of the smaller starter pellets do you think you need?

Heading to Buffalo and picking up a bag week after next. When you're talking about 3/4" to 1 1/4" fish, 1mm difference in fish food size is huge.

I push the smallest fry harder than any other class size when raising CNBG. Having successful spawns are only worthwhile if the fry survive the first 30-45 days, so feeding them as early as possible makes a huge difference in the final numbers. Or at least it did for me in the past.

Pecking at surface fish food powder by fry that are just developing digestive systems gets them a really good start, and they quickly transition to small pellets. I'm currently hand feeding my CNBG 3 1/2 cups of food a day, and slowly upping it 1/2 cup a week. They could eat more, but because of the heat and lack of rain, I'm trying to keep the water as clean as possible. I've already done one 8 hour 3" pump flush from the big pond, just to give them a little fresh water.

Just a reminder, I'm doing nothing but passing on what I do, and had success with.

They don't call you "Freak" for nothing....

I sure like the new Optimal #3 pellet...1.8mm and floats. 48% whoop-azz in a bag for 1" fish plus a bit.

I'll stick with Aquaxcel, but Optimal really does cover the bottom of the food chain.

Babies have been busy. Fry numbers have exploded.

That's a beautiful sight, Al!

Thanks for the pic !

Those are certainly some industrious BG. They are making your pond look like Titelist's latest golf ball!

This may just relate to warmer southern waters, so take that into consideration. Of course, a lot of the northern states also got hit hard this year by very high temps.

If you're raising forage, and have a target size in mind, then don't overlook the pull out date. I haven't done a surface temperature test because I know it's already 90+, and that means these CNBG won't be safely pulled out for another 3-4 months. If you're leaving the forage pond active, and just taking out a certain percentage annually, then I wouldn't think size consideration would be an issue at all.

Since my original stockers are almost at my 5" target length, I've cut back their 1/8" pellets from 3 cups to 3/4 of a cup a day, and I'm now focusing on the 1" to 3" CNBG at the upper end of the pond. I'm feeding these 2.2mm pellets, and increasing the numbers weekly. I hope the vast majority of the first and second spawns in my hatchery pond will be 4" to 5" by October. If not, then I can safely pull those out in November or early December.

In short, consider the gape size and length of the predator fish you're wanting to provide forage for, and don't blow by those numbers when raising forage specifically for them. If you're raising forage to survive those predators, and hopefully survive to spawn when they're moved to the primary pond, then by all means continue to feed them at proper amounts to get them to a larger size.

Great post Al! Cecil is raising some trout for me to stock this Fall, and he had to cut back feeding them significantly. I think he's feeding them once every other day now, or they would be way bigger than the target weight of 1#-1 1/4# each.