I would like to try what you did next year. I am quite a bit closer to the hatchery so might just try to pick up a batch.
The SMB and feed is kind of a funny story. When I got my original 100 SMB Hartley delivered he said they would go to feed easily and that they fed them sinking feed he had a feed mill near him prepare. Well that was in December and the feeding season over so this spring I started putting out floating pellets to try and get the SMB to feed. My FHM took to the pellets fine but as far as I could see hitting the surface I never saw the original SMB eating. Maybe they were cleaning it up when is sank but I could never tell. Then about a month ago I started seeing SMB fingerlings in very shallow water (the summer water had cleared a lot so could see better). They would chase a small jig and I could see them hitting the starter pellets.
So the funny part of the story is that as far as I could tell my original stocked SMB did not take to the feed very much (I do see some larger fish hitting the larger pellets now) but the new recruits took to it pretty readily. At least some of them. Who knows how many. Some of them must eat a lot because I have caught a couple of 6" ones that their bellies are stuffed full and oozing out pellets out their anal opening.
I just kept putting out small amounts of pellets (not enough to foul the water - just a few cups in a one acre pond) even if I saw no activity. Figuring if they got hungry eventually they would eat. They did, at least some of them.
