Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Catfish bluegill feeding

Started feeding the fish on old pond everyday sense Saturday. Has LMB, BG, and CC. The cats are hammering the feed. How long does it take for the bluegill and possibly the bass to catch on. Its almost like the catfish are keeping bluegill away. Been feeding by hand, feeder will be here this weekend. Little over half acre pond. Thanks

I have never had any luck getting wild bass to feed train. From a fish farm they feed fine. Any Bluegill will feed

I can’t get the bluegill to eat yet. I’d say catfish are keeping them away

I think it can take a few weeks.

Try feeding the Catfish, then 20 minutes later throw out more feed, but in shallower areas. The HSB in my pond will keep the BG away from the feed if I don't stagger the feeding times.

It took my bluegill a few weeks to catch on to the feeding, they started slowly showing up. I had the same question when I started feeding, they just didn't seem to be interested. Once they found the feed and figured out the time they are aggressive little feeders and the catfish do not phase them, heck I have about 30-40 turtles, cats and a ton of bluegill all feeding together.

My bass never feed on the fish food but feeding those bluegill has greatly increased the size of my bass, not to mention I have some 1lb+ bluegill now.

Took my BG three or four weeks before they really got the whole pellet feeding stuff, even with little competition. Now they show up despite dealing with LMB, HSB, RBT, herons, and geese.

One other possible factor: Cool water temps. At least at my place, BG and CNBG are the last to come in to the shallows & at the feeder every spring.

My experience seems quite the opposite of the norm as far as feeding is concerned. The LMB seem to keep the BG away. The Bass are voracious feeders. I even have a SMB that comes around. How he got in there, I'll never know.

Some of that can be altered by feeder location , timing and available cover at the feeding location. If you have some (fair amount) of thick cover at the feeder location BG will be less impacted by larger fish (dominance and predation).

I have just one feeder for a 16 acre lake so they dont get all they want obviously, Id go broke trying to feed them all, therefore when the feeder goes off the BG go absolutely nuts trying to get what they can before the catfish get there, I do have some brushy treetop that blew over and is sitting right in front of the feeder, I think that helps the BG some as to being able to hang out right there and not get chased off by predators.
Of course my LMB and BC have just been put in last fall along with WE and YP this spring as fingerlings so they are not keeping up with the BG numbers, there are just an obscene number of BG GS and fathead minnow fry in the pond with tons more to come this summer, as somebody on this forum quoted, they should literally be able to go to sleep hungry and wake up full if they just sleep with their mouth open.