Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding effect on catch rates?

I think I put fish in our pond before it was ready. Now I am worried about what the BG, RES and FH will eat. I am not worried about the few LMB or the BC because I planted a decent number of FH.

So I bought a feeder and ordered some small diameter fish feed from the feed store, the feed will be here in a week. I am worried about survival of the fish in a 2 month old 48 degree pond.

My question on the feeding is, as the fish get trained on feed how easy are they for the kids to catch?

Thanks for the help and the previous help on other questions I have had.

You will likely not see much feeding activity in 48 degree water, so don't put a lot of feed in to sit around and hurt water quality.

However, once it warms up, sooner or later you should have BG & (while they last) FHM feeding (RES most probably not, unless they have been feed trained).

WRT catching feed trained fish, the CW says catch rates are usually not aversely affected. You may find feed pellet deceptions (Bruce has a thread on them somewhere, I thought it was in the Archives but couldn't find it there) are a useful bait/lure. And you may want to turn the feeder off for a couple of days before fishing excursions; hungry fish tending to bite better.

FWIW in 2007, I had more BG feeding on pellets than ever before. I also had my best year fishing for BG yet.

Pellet raised and feed trained fish often are easier to catch than "wild" free roaming fish especially if you fish near the feeder. But be careful that too frequent and long extended periods of fishing near the feeder will produce a high percentage of "hook smart" fish that become harder and harder to catch. The first year or two the fishing is fabulous, but with intensive fishing the catch rate often declines. Proceed with caution.

How long has water been in the pond prior to stocking ? In an emergency and with no proper fish food available you could put out some dry dog food . FH will eat it and so will BG but only use for a short period of time when no fish food is available. It is not the proper formula but is better than starving fish.

It was about a month between filling and adding the BG and RES. The BC were added earlier with 5K of FH. Thanks guys for the help.

I believe you are worrying about stravation for no reason. The fish eat little if hardly any this itme of year. Natural food can form in that timeframe.

I would be worried more about longterm success in stocking the bass in at the sametime as forage, what size bass and how many, what size bluegill? When you get a few warm days the bass will start feeding on smaller bluegill if they are 6" or greater. I will be out of town but others can respond to you answer, good luck.

Mt, hopefully DIED will weigh in on this. I don't feed so I cannot give you personal experience other than my experience at DIED's pond. He feeds and I can tell you that there is no problem with catching fish at his pond. We used fly fishing rigs and a small fly and caught fish-o-plenty.

mtalley, When you get a good feeding schedule established with your feed trained fish, the competition will overcome “hook shyness” to some extent.

Have No qualms about fishing around the feeders – you are “matchin’ the hatch” – same as with any other fish.

Whether salt or fresh water fishing, a single top water fish is difficult to catch.
When top water fish are schooling, competition makes it easy.
A fish is a fish is a fish.

If your feed trained fish get hook shy, turn off the feeders for a few days – hungry fish will bite.

Have fun with your pond – the little kids will learn and benefit.
That’s what it’s all about..

Good luck

Greg, yes I am also worried about the bass. The bad part is some of the LMB are big enough to eat the BC, RES and BG but only 8 or so of them. I planted around 200 each of the panfish (total of 600) so I am pretty sure I will have a decent survival rate.

I do have some feed, Aquamax 2000, that is larger than I would like but I put a 4 lbs of that in the other day and will add more in a couple more days. It is too big for the panfish to eat so it needs to break apart to be edible.

Thanks for the help everyone.

In the mild California climate, there should be plenty of terrestrial and aquatic critters to go around until you can get an algae bloom growing. Your fish wil be fine.

mtalley how long does it take for the food to be consumed?

Sorry I was away from a computer for a few days. I have yet to see any feeding activity and most of the food ends up on the bank from being blown ashore by the wind and dropping water.

I feed two times and have stopped, I think I need warmer water. A buddy is building legs for a feeder I bought and I have some small diameter feed on the way for the 3 1/2" BG and RES. BTW, it almost hit 70 F today, so if that keeps up, which it never does, the fish should get active soon.

hi mt, i would definitely wait on the feeding. u may be south of me, but we probably are pretty close in terms of water temps/pond activity......except for the frogs and birds, my pond is dead as a doornail.