The fish at my place has completely shut off at feeding time. Last 2 days they have went from eating like piranhas to zero. It's getting down into the low 30s now at night now.
A couple days ago our water was just over 60 and some eating to 50 today and nothing. I did take the feeders out because our high is not going above 45 in the next week. I guess it is time to be getting the ice fishing gear in good order. That is usually our best fishing.
Feeding dropped off to next to nothing so I put the remaining feed in storage for the winter. I also changed the aeration over to the winter diffuser only setting and shut it down until needed when ice and snow show up. I have it rigged so I can just flip a switch in the house when I want to turn it on to blow a hole without having to bundle up and trudge to the pump house at the pond.
Yup - Have only seen one two times while hunting, but they have been spotted in every county of Indiana. This one is quite small, but I saw a big tom a few years back. Way cool! Can see much better if you zoom in.
My buddy had a pretty wild experience last spring while spring turkey hunting, had his grandson out hunting in the youth season, he had two of them come in to his turkey calling and when they got close they split up and came in on them from opposite direction planning on ambushing this turkey, they were hid in some tallish grass and the bobcats came within 15 yards before they realized it wasn't a turkey they were stalking. said it gave him chills the extreme teamwork they displayed in their endeavors.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
Feeding dropped off to next to nothing so I put the remaining feed in storage for the winter. I also changed the aeration over to the winter diffuser only setting and shut it down until needed when ice and snow show up. I have it rigged so I can just flip a switch in the house when I want to turn it on to blow a hole without having to bundle up and trudge to the pump house at the pond.
Bill my feeding has gone sporadic. One day they will tear the feed up, then we get a cold front and there will be feed floating uneaten.
I set my timers to half the amount and timed them to mid day instead of morning and night.
Last year when I was only hand feeding, I fed all the way up to the beginning of December. Not sure what is going to happen this year with the feeder.
The SMB in my RES/SMB pond have pretty much quit feeding. The water has cleared up and I can see them a foot below the surface, but for the most part they just ignore the feed. So I will toss out a little on a warm day to see if there is interest, but pretty much stopped feeding them. That is one advantage of hand feeding. You get to observe what is going on.
Feeding dropped off to next to nothing so I put the remaining feed in storage for the winter. I also changed the aeration over to the winter diffuser only setting and shut it down until needed when ice and snow show up. I have it rigged so I can just flip a switch in the house when I want to turn it on to blow a hole without having to bundle up and trudge to the pump house at the pond.
Bill my feeding has gone sporadic. One day they will tear the feed up, then we get a cold front and there will be feed floating uneaten.
I set my timers to half the amount and timed them to mid day instead of morning and night.
Last year when I was only hand feeding, I fed all the way up to the beginning of December. Not sure what is going to happen this year with the feeder.
The SMB in my RES/SMB pond have pretty much quit feeding. The water has cleared up and I can see them a foot below the surface, but for the most part they just ignore the feed. So I will toss out a little on a warm day to see if there is interest, but pretty much stopped feeding them. That is one advantage of hand feeding. You get to observe what is going on.
John,
Sounds like we are seeing the same thing. I opted to just quit feeding but I'll bet there will still be a few days when they would feed well. I hand feed and like the control it gives on the amount fed per day. Even during the summer, there are days when a front moves thru that they don't feed well. On those days, I might take half the pail of food back to the house. I considered a small feeder to keep feeding consistent even when I can't make it to the pond, but I have a bad FA problem and really don't need any extra nutrients that uneaten food will provide....Besides, I like to watch them eat!
This past cold spell effected my cnbg feeding the past 4 days at the feeder that throws into 4 to 5' water. They pretty much shut off at that feeder but the other two feeders that throw into 7 to 10' water remained active. I expect the shallow feeding cnbg will turn back on after the warmer weather over the next few days. I might get a chance to ck water temps today. The hsb and lmb are actively feeding with fish to 7.5 lbs.
Last edited by TGW1; 10/19/1908:01 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Augie showed up last night and spent the night in God's country NW Kansas so we absolutely had to send him home with a load of nice Yellow perch today! Augie and his wife left us a huge bag of homegrown pears and they are very, very tasty :-)
Tbar glad our dog wasn't with us and that the ATV didn't fling the snake upwards. She posted the snake pic on www.facebook.com/groups/whatsnakeisthis/ and they confirmed Cottonmouth.
My water is clear for the first time since it's beginning coming up on 5 yrs this November. Sam (the younger Golden Retriever) and Charlie the little toy Poodle/Maltese who is now 8 yrs old and who the family lap dog made a trip around the pond yesterday. We stopped by the feeder that throws into 10 foot of water. I watched some dozen or so lmb that all ranged in the 4 to 5 lb size swim along the bottom of the pond in the 4 to 5' water depths. For me, it was something to see. As I watched I saw a nice size school of 5" TFS swim by along with some nice sized cnbg that was hanging out in the area. I threw out some of the Purina LM feed, a few chunks at a time and watched these nice sized lmb come up and feed pretty aggressively. As I did this slowly, a few chunks at a time, I saw some 5 lb HSB move into the picture. They also feed pretty aggressively. The whole picture was something to see. As we made our way around the pond to the pier. We all set there and began our hand feeding the lmb feed. And again the show was on. These lmb and hsb were a little smaller for the most part but still nice sized. There were a lot of 4" cnbg hanging out along with some larger sized ones. And another school of TFS showed up but these were in the 3" sized. While watching all of this a school of some dozen or so HSB came in like a line in the sand. Busting the feed and busting the TFS school. So aggressive and moving so fast I was not able to tell what sized fish these were. It was good to see all of this at the pond. It was a good time relaxing and spending some time with the fish and the dogs. And I didn't do any fishing. I'm not sure I want all this clear water but is nice to see what down there in the pond.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Took a road trip to windblown western Kansas, where Snipe loaded my tank with some very nice YP. We all made it home in good shape, and everyone is happy except for my shiners, who are now being terrorized by these new savages.
I couldn't do anything today except look at the ponds. We have had over 2" of rain so far today, and well over 10 inches in October. My older (leaking) pond is less than 5 inches from full, and the newer pond has been running over most of the month. CC were still feeding well as of last evening. I've already had over 54 inches of rain this year, with 2-1/4 months to go. If it's even normal through the rest of the year, it might hit 60". The ground pumps like walking on a stiff wet sponge. Simply amazing!