Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding Trout Under Ice / Trout Eating Off Bottom

Here is an update.

I fished yesterday in the middle of the pond, near our floating raft which is frozen in the ice. The depth of the pond is nearly consistent everywhere, so this new area was not a different depth than where I fished before. Yet, to my surprise, I dropped down a hook with trout food on it and it was bit within 10 seconds. It was an instant take. The trout clearly are not going to the areas I had been fishing before, even though I caught them there earlier this winter. I prefer to not use their food as bait, so I dropped a minnow down and it got no bites. My guess is there were other fish down there that ignored the minnows. I am not sure why the trout seemed to move to this new area. I will fish there again, but I hope to not need to use trout food as bait.

Inside the stomach of the fish, there was no trout food, meaning I don't think they were going to the area I had been feeding in daily. There were some small bugs in the stomach. I will link a picture; I wonder if anyone can tell me what those are. The fish was also very dark which is typical of the males in the pond, I've noticed.

I'd really like to watch with a camera in the new spot I fished, but it's been not working, so when I fix it I'll drop it back down.