Grow Trophy Fish in Pond - 3 Things You NEED To Know About Supplemental Pond Fish Feeding
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- Join us on our journey of growing trophy Walleye, Smallmouth, Perch and Bluegill in our 1 acre pond. Texas Hunter automatic fish feeders and Aquamax Sport Fish food and Optimal fish food.
3 Things You Need To Know:
Only start feeding fish when water is 50 degrees or higher
Feed as much food as they will eat in a 10-15 minute period
DO NOT overfeed your fish, or it will lead to more algae growth in your pond
Bonus Tips:
Feed fish consistently so they become trained and expect it
Provide ample cover for the fish to hide in around the feeder.
Use high quality, high in protein fish food for maximum weight gain
Texas Hunter:
DF125 Setup Video: • Texas Hunter Direction... - Розваги
Always quality content sir! Thank you.
Appreciate you!! Blessings!
Was always curious when I see these feeders how long one bag lasts at the feed frequency that you choose.
That would be good to know. I think I can do a test and figure that data out. It probably exists somewhere, but I’ll do some samples and catch the feed to know how much food is dispensed per second to calculate how long a pound of food lasts…..stay tuned, I’ll share this info in video soon.
We feed our fish the Purina Aquamax MVP I think. Mostly bluegill and hybrid bluegill eat it. Sometimes you will see a largemouth go for a pellet or two as well, but I really hope some of the catfish are eating it. I want them to grow big so I can catch some monsters in the future like I did when I was a kid
If catfish is the goal, consider trying a larger pellet. At our pond behind our church we have fed the Aquamax Sportfish Largemouth size pellets. They’re 3/4” pellets. The catfish would hit them on the surface in our church pond. I didn’t stick catfish in our pond, so that’s not our goal. But I think you should try at least some larger nuggets for the catfish. Your bluegill population should also help your catfish. It sounds cruel, but if you’re fishing for bluegill and catch some 5”ers, consider sacrificing them and cutting them up as cut bait for the catfish to eat. Thin your smaller bluegills, and help grow trophy catfish. Sounds like that would be your goal.
@@newnatureadventures I have considered cutting up some small crappie for the catfish, since last year I caught a whole bunch of small crappie, but I haven't caught too many yet this year. I could cut up a few bluegill as well.
@redneckmini14 crappie/bluegill whichever species you want to manage more to keep their populations in check. Either would be great.
I hope you sanded all that plastic with at least 80 grit sandpaper to make algae stick to it
I didn’t on these. I have no shortage of algae growing on the structures I put in last year that I didn’t sand down first. I didn’t bother with it since I’ve seen how much algae grows on the underwater camera on smooth surfaces without sanding. I did sand my first ones, but then forgot to do a few, and when I compare them side by side on the camera….I can’t see a difference in algae growth. Algae is in everything on the camera. So I have stopped bothering with that step.
@@newnatureadventures that makes sense
Thanks for this video. I just bought a Texas hunter feeder, my pond has been just surviving naturally off what they can get and I’ve been back and forth with what feed to buy. I have small to medium sized fish, bream and small mouth bass. I was thinking buying the aqua max 400 since they are small, then the 500 but if this MVP covers all the bases. Then I will just get this. Do you have any feed tips or anything more helpful info?
You’re welcome….and thanks for watching. I used the 500 last year as my fish were just stocked in fall of 2022. So 2023 I fed the 500. I wouldn’t bother with the 400. I think your fish will handle the 500 fine. I was advised to go with the MVP because my fish are various sizes now in the second full year of the pond. I think your fish could also manage the MVP. I don’t see much smallmouth activity on the surface feeding on the pellets. But they sure chase the bluegills when they’re feeding. There are lesser food products out there that only have 30-36% protein…I wouldn’t bother with that. Look for 40%+. I have used only Aquamax so far, but been reading more on Optimal, and guys have been swearing by it. From the video…morning and evening feeding times are good, and increase your amount as the fish start eating more and get acclimated. As for the pellet size again….I watch schools of fatheads and shiners pick away at pellets if they can’t eat the whole pellet….and just break it in pieces. I would say MVP would be good for your situation. Locate your feeder so it’s spreading feed over water at least 3-4’ deep and deeper. The Texas Hunter can fling this stuff half way across the pond probably 50’ or so. You can angle the feeder to change the launch angle to broadcast the food closer or farther depending on your situation. I think the main thing is not overfeeding to start. The excess nutrients from uneaten food is not only a waste of money, but contributes to unwanted algae later in the year from excess nutrients and phosphorus. Have fun with it. I certainly have. Experiment and adjust as you go. Let me know if I can answer anything more specific or can make another video about something you’re curious about that would be helpful. Blessings!
@@newnatureadventures awesome information man, thank you so much for taking the time to write all that out for me. I just ordered a bag of MVP and I will look into the optimal. Have you used it yet? We are actually building our home right now so this is a brand new journey for me to embark on and I’m excited to mess around with it. I live in south GA so the weather is humid most of the time and the temps high, we don’t see many cool months. I was thinking of setting my feeder to 8am and a 2 second burst and then 5pm with a 3second burst. My wife bought a small bucket of feed and tossed it out over the past week and the fish hit it here and there but this is the first time they will have consistent feed. They are skinny and not huge like I said so I think they will be happy with the mvp as well, I assume as I feed them this will help with the spawn rate? And I should increase in population. Did you see an uptake in population when you started feeding?
Sure thing, glad to help! I haven’t used the Optimal yet. We’re in Iowa and it’s just started getting warm enough this year to feed. Optimal was recommended to me by a trusted source, so I just ordered a bag online from their website. It was free shipping from Nebraska to me in Iowa. Not sure if GA would be the same. Check it out. I’m not surprised that your fish didn’t immediately hammer the pellets your wife through out. It takes them a little bit to learn and understand what’s going on. But when they learn, it’s so fun to just watch them explode on it. I think your timing is good to start. Given your climate in GA being consistently warmer, I would say feeding early and later when it’s not the heat of the day will be best. As for the spawn, I can’t say for sure that feeding has increased the spawn rate, but I have to believe it does. Overall fish health will improve reproduction. If the fish don’t have to expend so much energy hunting for food, they have more resources to devote to the spawn. I don’t have any data to prove that, but I can say that I did have a second spawn from the bluegill last fall. In Iowa in our shorter summer season, we can count on one bluegill spawn in June typically, but a second one later in the summer/early fall is a bonus. Do you have an aeration system? Hope the house build goes well. How old is your pond? And what is your species mix?
@@newnatureadventures oh wow I’ve never been up that far north but I bet it just now is getting warm like you said. It stays hot down here, winter doesn’t last long at all. Thank you very much, I appreciate that. We are praying for it to be smooth sailing for us! I’ll check out the optimal food. I saw on the website already, have you checked out the Purina game fish brand also? Any luck with it?
My pond I would say is about. 12 years old. It was heavily stocked in the beginning by the previous owners of the land? Or so I was told. I was told it’s Bass or small mouth bass and shell cracker bream. These are the only two species in there right now, I see minnows time to time, I think I put some minnows in there before. But I’ve owned the property for ten years now and the pond has been self sustaining. Has frogs etc, I’m hoping with this fish feeder I can make the bream bigger and maybe the bass will grow? My goal isn’t to have a trophy pond I just want the fish to be healthy and have a good eco system with a good chain. I also do not have aeration, the pond is spring fed and has never ran dry or got down low. Any tips?
Will be praying for you guys too! I’ve been to GA a few times. It is hot and humid in the summer for sure. Iowa has about as equal 4 seasons as you’ll find…about 3 months of each season give or take depending on the year. I love all the seasons. We didn’t get much winter this year and our ice season was so short. I was bummed. Anyway…I haven’t use the purina game fish chow….it would be fine, but it has a lower percentage of protein in the pellet. If trophy fish isn’t your goal, that may be an option for you. It’ll be cheaper than the aquamax or optimal.
Without seeing the pics of your fish, I would guess you have largemouth bass and bream/bluegill. When I hear shellcracker, I think red ear sunfish. I’ve learned that certain fish are called different names in the north and south.
I would also assume that if you haven’t done much with the pond in the 10 years you’ve had the property, that you may have an overpopulation of fish situation, which would be leading to the small size. Feeding will help, but more than that, I think you may have to start removing fish to reduce the number of mouths to feed. A pond can only sustain a certain number of pounds per acre. And so when there is an increase in fish, they max out their size smaller than if there were fewer fish. I know trophy fish isn’t the goal, but you might want to consider removing every bluegill/bream you catch that’s 6” or less. Pond management is quite involved…it’s a numbers game. How big are the bass that you catch? Are they small too? You probably need to remove them as well between 10-15”. You need smaller ones to eat the bream fry, and you want the larger ones to grow even larger. But the midsize need to be reduced to let the bigger ones get even bigger. If left alone, all the fish will gradually all become the same size and you end up with a pond that’s “stunted”. Fish won’t get any bigger….even with feeding. So I would remove all the fish you catch unless they’re big. Reducing the number of mouths to feed will help your overall ecosystem and help your fish thrive.
That’s great you have a spring fed pond. That helps with the water recirculation and prevents the water from becoming stale. I don’t have that in our pond. It’s purely a runoff/watershed pond….and we have to supplement with well water. We built our pond from scratch two years ago. I’ve tried to document every part of our pond build…the good and the bad. It’s been a fun journey and I’ve learned a lot.