Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Fish food dilema

I think I've talked about this once before but as my fish progress it's becoming more of a concern.. What I have is YP and SMB using the 9mm Optimal bass pellets but if I open up the TH feeder enough to let that through, it throws about a half pound of everything underneath that size. Those fish WANT the larger pellet and the 44/8 is in my mind, the best choice for those fish.
I had a discussion with TH last year about building a double hopper-2 spinner motor, 1 blower type feeder and it didn't sound like a reasonable request after discussing it.
I watched for an hr tonight and can see the bass and YP are being very selective on pellet size. Dustin sent me a bag of Aquafeed last year to see how they would like that and they are eating it, but the lipid level is higher than I would like.
Kinda sounds like maybe a second feeder set up with just Optimal Bass may be the best option?
I'm feeding #3, 1.5mm Skretting, aquamax 300, 500, Jr, BG and the Aquafeed. I know..but there's a meaning to my madness..

When I tried bass & bluegill pellets mixed together, the feeder inevitably jammed within a few days. Finally gave up, now only use BG feed, such as Optimal BG or Purina MVP.

Best I can do now is toss the Optimal Handthrow when I want the HSB or LMB to get a treat. I find that they home in on the sound within thirty to sixty seconds. Once one blows up, the rest come in a hurry!

I use an inexpensive Moultrie directional feeder and throw catfish food mixed with Optimal Bluegill Jr and it doesn't jam or clog. Been up and running for over a year now with no problems, except the raccoons busted the solar panel mount once.

I'm just hoping the catfish & bluegill know which food they should be eating.

TH feeders are great feeders, but like all feeders, they have their problems. They don't handle fish food that's at or near 9.5mm pellets, and mixing pellets of different sizes creates it's own set of problems. I tried a 3/16" and 1/8" combo, and it dumped a ton of food. The 1/8" pellets almost carpeted the water. The only solution I found was to alter the mix ratio to a 4 to 1 mix, and all seemed well. Since feeding my larger CNBG was a priority, I switched to Sweeney feeders so I could throw the 9.5mm pellets.

Both feeder brands have negatives and positives, but if I was going to make a Frankenfeeder, I'd start with a Sweeney. It leaks less than a TH, and it's just my opinion, but the auger handles food much better than the spinner. If the auger could be a drop in where different sizes could be used, then it would really be hard to beat. It already handles 1/2" pellets, so a 1" drop in auger could be a game changer for feeding LMB and HSB larger pellets. I'd also want to add a cutoff switch that could work with some kind of remote. It could be great during the colder months when we don't always want to feed the fish. I would also want all the electric connectors to mirror TH. It's nice to have fittings that need no instructions to connect.

I just got an email from optimal about a special run of sinking fish food. Has anyone used this before and what were your observations

Negative on sinking: You don't get to see nearly as much feeding activity. Harder to judge fish reactions & adjust accordingly. Also, not nearly as much fun to observe!

Positive: Less food stolen by greedy geese. Fish less exposed to predation as they feed. Shy fish have better shot at getting fed, including bottom feeders like RES.

Love the idea of sinking during the annual visit by geese!

Agree with anthropic...not for me.

First and foremost, I really enjoy watching the fish feed, gives me a great feeling of satisfaction, especially in the early morning with a cup of coffee, relaxing, evaluating my fish population.

It's amazing how dynamic a pond can be. I just added a 12V led 2K lumin light with a 12" solar panel to hang off my deck with a timer to run from 10PM to 1 AM...hopefully it's a feeding magnet.

I have no idea how a fish zooms in on a chunk of feed at the bottom .

My experience has been with a 50/50 mix feed, hand thrown. Had surface feeding, and in my clear water, Secchi 54"-84" .
Feeding heavily all the way down till visibility lost. The sinkers were smaller pieces, the smaller fish really went after them.
Have since switched to Optimal.

I think in this case I need to consider a second feeder as the only consistent option...
As for the sinking feed, I believe it has it's place and although visual feeding is a fair indicator of what's going on, it still doesn't tell the whole story, one I think requires a more straight-forward management effort. Angling, trapping, electrofishing, etc..
We still have to weigh and measure to make good decisions which we should be using with floating feed as well.
I scold myself regularly because I'm guilty of not practicing what I preach as often as I should.

Unfortunately it sounds like that's the best option. I'm fortunate to have both a small pond and next to my house so I just hand feed most nights.

As for sinking pellets, when I'm off and hydrate the feed, I like to start off smushing some and letting them sink. I think that riles up my perch quicker and gets them rising to the floaters sooner than when I just dump dry floaters in. My feed is small too, so I can form some bigger clumps of feed and trust that my big girls are down them slurping up their treats. My secchi's are 18"- 2ft, so I don't get to see too many sinkers get eaten, but it's fun when they have a slight hang time and you see a flash go after it under everything. The crash and dash surface feeding is quite fun and I can judge if they need more or less the next day, plus it keeps the kids interested longer. I do have one perch that has figured out pellets get stuck against my feed ring and she likes to hang around almost vertical and slurp those up.


I just installed a light off mine as well that has essentially a weed eater head under it. Bugs get attracted to the light, then whacked down into the water! I put it over my feed ring since the fish are already trained to eat there. I've seen minnows hanging out there way more at night now that the light is up, and I don't see dead bugs in the ring (I have seen them whacked into the water), so I think its working (I'm certainly telling myself it was worth the investment! haha)