I have had some clients complaining about bluegill feeding and also not biting. We get this from time to time but these are both good clients where this is not normal. Only similarities both way west of me MS/la line and Shreveport,LA.
So can you guys chime in on bluegill feeding thus far this year. Especially if near these areas and had trouble.
Could be cold snaps, heavy rains, spawning, but for months no feeding it is hard to explain to clients. Thanks for help and howdy been quite awhile since on the forum since the spring electrofishing season started.
Greg, CNBG have been gorging for the last month and no change with any pressure/weather changes. I had extremely light results until the temp hit the upper 50's, and now 50# of food a day wouldn't be enough at the BG feeder.
The only real change for me this spring has been the CNBG reluctance to eat any food that's too small. 7" to 11" CNBG will not eat AM 400 sized pellets under any circumstances.
I don't know about feeding. But it is common for spawning BG to leave the beds during cold snaps and rain events. They just move a little deeper. Then they come right back the next day or whenever it warms up or clears up.
If you have a pond and are feeding anywhere from east Texas to Georgia and from the gulf coast to I-40 lets hear what is going on with your fish !!!!!
Greg, our CNBG are feeding like crazy - sometimes... It's been a crazy year - cold fronts every 2 or 3 days - rapid barometric pressure changes - spawning.. Sometimes main pond feeding in morning on schedule or vice versa - little pond most of the time by hand feeding. Generally speaking feeding is very aggressive with variations expected this time of the year. Good luck explaining this stuff to clients.... George
N.E. Texas 2 acre and 1/4 acre ponds Original george #173 (22 June 2002)
My pond has been stocked for only a little over a year, so I can not say from experience.
But I was surprised how slow the BG have been to start feeding agressively. Last summer and fall they would hit the surface with a loud "pop", agressively snatching up the floating food. This spring the FHM have been feeding agressively for at least a month now and would eventually get the feed cleaned up but only in the last few days have I noticed the BG hitting the top agressively.
The BG have been feeding lightly for two or three weeks, but gingerly taking a pellet only ocasionally. I've also been feeding some sinking feed for the catfish (knowing the FHM would clean up anything the CC did not get to before them - FHM's are little pigs when it comes to feed). So the BG may have been eating that instead of the floating.
Last night finally started hearing that familiar "pop" of the BG hitting the pellet.
My dad has his feeder up but they were slow to come to it. But they are also on beds up in the shallows so he threw some out by hand over there and they went crazy. He was amazed at all the BG beds he could see. Not sure he has made it out during spawn time so pretty cool stuff.
Said a few Cats came to visit as well, they are getting old and need to come out. We are trying to figure out how to get them but have a few ideas to try.
All in ok feeding I guess but the late cold fronts I think are what got the fish crazy.
I threw food out (AM600) in a clients pond for the first time this year and both BG and CC came up to feed. Overcast, middle of the day, ambient air temp 50°F, water temp 61°F. The last time the fish saw pellets was mid October.
Said a few Cats came to visit as well, they are getting old and need to come out. We are trying to figure out how to get them but have a few ideas to try.
We have been using a trap to get some bullheads caught out of our old pond. Caught some by hook and line, then decided to try it by trapping.
I hand feed in this pond some so the fish were used to the feed. Used a fish trap that had a center feed tube. Took a mesh bag and put some field corn and pelleted fish food. Added a euthanized GSF to the bait one day that we also caught out of this pond in the cage and the two BH's we caught ate the back half of it through the cage wires.
Caught eight pretty quick in the trap and about that many by line. Nothing the last couple days. I'm either getting lower on bullheads or just the dumb bullheads.
Don't know if the trap would work on the CC but imagine it would if the trap was big enough for the fish targeted.
The bluegill in my Pond outside of Nacogdoches, TX are feeding and biting well and have been for 6-8 weeks. While bass fishing with artificial rattle traps and top water I will get several strikes from them during almost every retrieve or at the very least have a few follow the bait up to the bank.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."- Ben Franklin
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I have had some clients complaining about bluegill feeding and also not biting. We get this from time to time but these are both good clients where this is not normal. Only similarities both way west of me MS/la line and Shreveport,LA.
So can you guys chime in on bluegill feeding thus far this year. Especially if near these areas and had trouble.
Could be cold snaps, heavy rains, spawning, but for months no feeding it is hard to explain to clients. Thanks for help and howdy been quite awhile since on the forum since the spring electrofishing season started.
Had the same thing happen to me last summer with yellow perch. The fish were there but went off pellets for an extented period of time. It was almost as if their was something wrong with the feed. It wasn't high water temps as the previous summer that was much hotter they kept on feeding albeit slower.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 05/17/1402:04 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
I have had some clients complaining about bluegill feeding and also not biting. We get this from time to time but these are both good clients where this is not normal. Only similarities both way west of me MS/la line and Shreveport,LA.
So can you guys chime in on bluegill feeding thus far this year. Especially if near these areas and had trouble.
Could be cold snaps, heavy rains, spawning, but for months no feeding it is hard to explain to clients. Thanks for help and howdy been quite awhile since on the forum since the spring electrofishing season started.
Had the same thing happen to me last summer with yellow perch. The fish were there but went off pellets for an extented period of time. It was almost as if their was something wrong with the feed. It wasn't high water temps as the previous summer that was much hotter they kept on feeding albeit slower.
I have seen this too and wondered if they kind of get to good of feed. These few summer fish that we do catch when they seem to have just dispersed from the pond and go off the feed have a very big fat layer in them. I wondered that if they are getting fed to well and when it gos hot they back off the feed because they really do not need it. When its warmer they do not need to use as much energy.
Just my farmer talk from farming pigs and cows. We would see that they would back off the feed in the summer but winter would use more just to keep warm and the rest to fatten up.
Thanks guys for the feedback. I will pass this onto the client. We always have some give and take in the spring. However this just did not make any sense, especially given the extended nature of lack of feeding. It is frustrating being a fish biologist and not having all the answers.
I remind myself things change so try to make sure "I always get some learnin' in whenever possible". Thanks
We have a 2 acre pond, 3 years old, 2.5 years stocked with CNBG,BG, RE, CC, HSB, RBT and the CNBG has been off. I fed lightly all winter, AM 400, 500, 600 and did see a few BG feeding but was attempting to feed the HSB & RBT.
The last couple of weeks, the CNBG & BG have been feeding heavy but only the smaller fish. I did locate some of the larger CNBG & BG on beds which was away from the feeding area.
We had a cool front last week that came in, around 45 degrees, and the fish almost completely quit eating & hitting for 2-3 days afterwards.
Yesterday the fish were hitting slightly slow from normal last year but I guess our catch rate is about every 45-60 seconds rather than every 15-20 seconds. Fish size have been all ranges from 6.5" and smaller, a couple females that are heavy with eggs but no large males, nothing around the feeding area.
My TH feeder is going off 5 times a day at 1 second each time while I monitored the feeding. We are feeding at 11 am,1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm, & 7 pm Yesterday afternoon around 3 pm the fish consumed the feed within 10 seconds. I will be cranking up the feeder, AM 400, 500 & 600 to 3 seconds each time and add 7 am & 9 am feeding at 1 second and see what takes place.
Thanks guys for the feedback. I will pass this onto the client. We always have some give and take in the spring. However this just did not make any sense, especially given the extended nature of lack of feeding. It is frustrating being a fish biologist and not having all the answers.
I remind myself things change so try to make sure "I always get some learnin' in whenever possible". Thanks
I did not see this post till just now sorry. Greg I am having the exact same problems your are. Here in Northern Arkansas "Batesville". I have had my feeder running since the first of March and for the most part have been quite dissapointed. I thought for a while there I may have lost some of my CNBG. I couldn't catch hardly any either. Then it might be ok for a day then right back to just little ones feeding?? Really weird. I am glad you asked I thought maybe it was just something I was doing or wrong in my pond... They are acting really strange this year though....
RC
The only difference between a rut and a Grave is the depth. So get up get out of that rut and get moving!! Time to work!!
I'm not much of an angler, so take that fact in consideration when reading this. This stuff may be old hat to guys who fish a lot.
Have had a few good days where BG would be biting good, for a short time. But a lot of the time seems like the catches were far and few between. At least what I was accustomed to the little fishing we did last summer. Keep in mind my BG were stocked as fingerling's only in March of 2013, so they were not all that big last summer.
Been catching some to stock daughters pond and needed a few more before the stocking was complete for BG. Wanted six or eight more 5-6". Should not be a problem. Fished for an hour using jigs with and without live bait. Same thing we had been using earlier on with success. Only caught one hybrid in an hours time and only a couple other weak bites.
Got frustrated and changed the game up. Put on a teeny tiny hook (threw away the package so don't know size) overall length about a half inch. Put a teeny tiny bit of Slim Jim on it. No split shot, no swivel, no nothing. Just this teeny tiny hook with a bit of bait about the size of a green pea. Tossed it over the dock. It was so light it floated for 5 seconds before finally starting to sink. Fish on. In the next 30 minutes I caught 11 fish, everything from an adult FHM (fair and square, by the mouth, not snagged) to a 6" BG. Several 4-6" BG. One 3" BG that completely swallowed the hook to give you an indication of how small the hook was.
My point of this post is not to show everyone the prowess of my angeling. Cause I don't have any (picture of FHM caught on small hook below to prove it ).
The point is my BG did not want the size food I was offering them. For whatever reason, the lures and bait I had been offering and had been working quit working. But offer them a tiny morsel, and it was fish on. Why? Don't have a clue. But catching a 6", well fed, nice looking BG on a hook that looked like it was made for minnows was quite surprising to me. And I gut hooked none of the fish except for the one 3" BG. All nicely in the mouth. Really weird, at least to me. Maybe old hat to you all.
So my lesson was, fish sometimes prefer different size food at different times. For reasons unknown to me but probably makes perfect sense to the fish. Maybe they were only hungry for a snack instead of a meal. Maybe they just did not want the little fish to get it. Who knows?
Maybe try feeding some smaller sized pellets than what a person normally uses when fish are not feeding like expected????
"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"
If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1) And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1) Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT? PB answer: It depends.
Snrub, You are right. BG's and Crappies are both like that.
Sometimes they will stop hitting a certain lure or bait. Someone might think there are none left in that spot. But change colors or sizes or styles of lures and they start hitting again.
And spawning BGs will turn off and move deeper after cold fronts or heavy rain. They usually only move a little deeper but sometimes they still will not hit anything even live bait.
They can get finicky and you have to figure them out.
snrub, I really think the difference with the slim jim is the smell and the wariness of the fish, not the size.
I usually fish for BG with crickets and other typical panfish baits but the slim jim is a great idea on those days when the bait store is closed or out of crickets. I can get it from any quickee store.