Dinner at Millers pond.

Okay next step for Millers pond. Feeding the fish. Blue gill, bream, catfish and bass.

I have the 50 lb bag of "here take this" free fish food, It is Sure catch 37% floating fish food. Is there something better to use when I buy the next bag?

I am going to hand feed. Bag instructions say don't feed more than the fish will eat in 12-20 minute. Don't feed until water temperature reach 55 degrees.

I assume that temperature is subsurface, is that correct?

How do you train fish to eat?

Do I just pick a spot and toss in a small quantity feed and see what happens?

The pond is roughly 1.5 acres. Do I feed in one location or can I feed in several locations around the pond?

DD - I'm not familiar with Sure Catch but if it is 37% protein,I'm assuming, then it is an excellent feed. The 55 degrees recommendation is based on surface temperature. The fish dont know what the feed is, so you need to throw a small quantity into the water and let the fish's curiosity bring them up to hit it. I would feed the fish in one spot.....right in front of your dock (grin) The fish will quickly figure it out that the feed is food. The bluegill/redears will come first and eventually the catfish. The bass are not likely to feed on the pellets. The bass will be feeding on the bluegill. If there are any carp in the pond they will show up eventually too.

Thanks George.

I will take your wise advice to feed in one location.

I have no dock, but the pond does have a dock. Everybody in the neighbor hood fishes from the dock

I have a section of bank I like. It is 50 yards from my front door. My section of bank is 30 yards from the dock.

I suggest you feed 50 yards from your front door then otherwise your neighbors will mess up your project.

TYpo in my post above.

The fish food is 32% not 37%

George thank you for the phone call yesterday. I appreciate all the help you have given me.

You called while I was out for my evening walk with wife, daughter and grand daughter. It was nice to have a conversation that wasn't all girly. Sometimes I think the only reason I am along is to hold the dog leash and pack the pistol.

It is encouraging to hear that you think I am for the most part on the right track.


On feeding the fish, is the better or best time?

Whatever fits your daily schedule best, but be consistent. If 5:00 in the afternoon is best then go out every day at 5 and feed. The fish will get used to that time and be hanging around waiting.

Pond temperature this afternoon was 55 degrees.

Next weekends weather fore temps in the teens.


Should I wait to start feeding?

Wait until 3rd week of March or first of April to begin feeding. That pond must be shallow to have 55 degrees water temp.

Max depth I am told is 12 feet.

I can confirm the pond has fish in it. Caught this one hanging a 1 inch chartreuese shad big gulp minnow on medium size painted jig head 12 inches below a bobber. I let it drift with the wind for 2 hours.

http://www.fototime.com/30836E84CDE9E25/orig.jpg

I suspect this is a largemouth bass. Is that correct?

I have been taking water temp this week and it has been 50 to 52 degrees.

Should I still hold of for two more weeks to start feeding?

yes, hold of until the water hits the low 60's. That is a large mouth bass with a tail deformity. It looks like it needs a few good meals to plump up a wee bit.

This pond was planted with with bass, bream and bluegill last fall. There are not suppose to be any crappie in the pond.

Granddaughter and caught 15 of these between the two of us this afternoon.

http://www.fototime.com/978ED7F6DB6D85F/xlarge.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/6AA85CB8BFB3F65/large.jpg

Those sure look like crappie to me. Are they?

The fish is a white crappie.

So we don't want them in our little pond, is that correct?

correct

We have no set "HOA" rules on the pond, but most practice catch and release.

I have just started fishing the pond and was told in the past there were no crappie in the pond. I am also new to this type of fishing and posted the pictures above on the HOA facebook page for ID. I was pretty sure this was a white crappie.

I got two types of responses, first several responses identifying these two fish a white crappie and saying that is all they ever catch in the pond.

The other but fewer responses were to not put these crappie back in the pond after catching them. Toss them on the bank or eat them.

I am pretty sure I can oblige the eating part. Should I? This pond is less than 1-1/2 acres.

feed the coons, feed the neighbors, feed yourself, feed anyone that will take them to reduce their numbers. By July all the ones you catch out will be replaced by the spawn:banghead

And from what I see you saying George, the only way to get the m out is to poison the pond and start over?

correct or stock saugeye to start munching on them. ODWC recommendation is to stock no crappie in lakes under 10 acres because there is insufficient forage to support crappie. They prefer soft ray fish such as shad or minnows. They do not prefer hard ray fish such as bluegills, bass etc to eat.

George what think I see you saying that Crappie won't really go after the bluegill and bass that much-fingerlings of course, rather they will compete with bass and blue gill for the shad and minnows.

Water temperature has been creeping up. Started taking temperature last week at 50 degrees and was up to 56 yesterday.

When it reaches 60 degrees I am going to start feeding.

The other question about crappie, what is a good recipe?

Double D - Give me a couple days as I am really tied up until Thursday. Ill give you a jingle then.

Sounds good George,

Douglas

Feeding started this morning. I used cup of feed and tossed it on the pond. I saw zero reaction to the feed. Didn't expect much else. The fish had never seen this before. I rattled the cup on the dock after tossing the feed in.

How long before I see some reaction to the feed going in the pond?

maybe a week.

Well progress. When I fed this morning I actually saw fish take food. Happened twice. Don't know if it is one fish feeding twice or two fish. Don't care, it's a start.

We have also finally caught something other than crappie. The wife got a blue gill yesterday.

That makes two bass, one Blue gill and a bunch of crappie.

Good for you. It looks like a nice size bluegill too.

Temperature in the pond has been dropping.

I have been feeding for 4 days now and have only seen fish twice, the second day.

I am concerned that perhaps the temperature drop may be the problem.

Should I stop feeding until the temperature comes back up?

Yes I would. Wait until it hits 60 degs and see what happens.

Thanks George for taking time talk with me yesterday--threw you a bit with that Montana phone number did I?

I sure would like to follow your advice and start over on the pond. But my voice is a lonely voice.

The loudest voice seems to be towards doing an electrofishing survey first and then decide what to do. I tried to point out we have crappie in the pond and we must remove them. All agree. But the only way to remove them it seems is poison. There is little enthusiasm for that. But I also think there is a lack of understanding on that.

The loudest voice is to have a Crappie fishing tournament for the kids and reduce the numbers.

I do not believe anything will happen this year. They dumped a bunch of fish in the pond last fall, small bass, small blue gill, cat fish and a bunch of fat head minnows. They don't seem to understand that the Crappie went after the minnow aggressively and there are probably few to none left.



Attachment 398033

The pond The upper right is the inlet, that little bay is shallow. There willows around the inlet and a bass is know to habitat in that area. The long straight line on the left is the dam. The lower left end of the dam is the outlet. At the upper left end of the dam can be seen the little dock. This upper left area is where most kids and family fish. The area is flat and easy access. The trees in the tree line lower right at set back from the wat abut 10 feet. The ice storm in February brought a large limb down into the pond. The clean up crew was urged to leave the limb in the pond and they did.

Pond temperatures are above 60 degrees and I started feeding this morning. I started with 8 ozs broad cast by hand from the dock.

There were signs of fish taking the feed today, that is encouraging.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Double D

Attachment 398033

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My house is directly north of the pin marked my spot. You can see the white roof of my kawasaki mule in the driveway.

So I was supposed to be straightening up the garage a bit. As I was working I looked at the pond and noticed how still the water was. And my pole was hanging from rack by the open garage door. What the heck, 10 casts and I'll get back back to organizing the garage. So 20 cast and 2 bites later I am back to the garage and 20 minutes later It's done.

I go back in the house and announce, "Garage is done." My lovely wife responds, "Did you catch anything?" So much for sneaking behind the back of a mother, grandmother and former kindergarten teacher. :)

Attachment 398390

3 year old Jackie caught his first fish today in Millers pond.

The first feeding attempt did not work. 14 straight days and I only had the one instance of fish feeding.

Then we had session of cold weather and pond temp dropped below 60 degrees.

When the pond temp got back up above 60 I started feeding again. Yesterday, Day 5 after tossing the food, turtle's started swimming to the feed. I saw no sign of fish feeding. This morning as soon as the feed hit the water I had turtles feeding and paying no attention to me. Will fish be next?

I also noticed last evening for the first time, minnow in the shallows. Things are starting to look up.


I opened the stomach of the crappie I caught yesterday.

Attachment 400363

For what its worth, this is the largest crappie I have caught in this pond. He was a pretty fat fish.

Attachment 400364

The stomach contained one beetle, one worm and something I don't have a guess about. Anyone else have any ideas?

Well I did a two week feed session then pond temperature dropped below 60. When it got back up to above 60 again I resumed feeding. Its been 16 days now and no fish come to the feed, turtles do. When I bang the cup on the dock railing you see turtle heads pop up all over the place.

I had arranged for the 8 year old neighbor kid to feed for me. He's a good kid and help me when I shoot my cannons. I am headed to Lake Eufaula this morning. I will have him feed over the weekend, But Monday I will have to lay him off. I had come over at 8 am every morning and feed. Looked at my Arlo security camera and there he was right on the dot a 8 am every morning. I'll give him a good reference.


During this feed I did learn my possums like the fish food so it won't go to waste.

Haven't caught a fish in a week on the pond, but haven't be fishing much either. Temperature was 80 degrees and it looks like a bloom is starting.