# feeding bass



## BASSINONE (Oct 24, 2013)

I have a 1 ac pond, stocked with bass, walleye, blue gill, crappie, and channel cats. I feed the cats and gills with a feeder. about 3 times a year i get 5 lb of minnows to put in. I caught a couple bass that had hugh heads and mouths, but the body was way to small. Pond is 25 years old, and deep. What can i do to improve my bass????? I have taken crappie and gave away 5 gal buckets full. Any suggestions??? thanks


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## wave warrior (Oct 2, 2005)

Sounds like the bass are loosing the food chain to the walleye , I'm no expert but seen this happen on our club ponds , after stocking walleye it only took 5-6 years and the bass got skinny compared to prior to the walleye........


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## Muddy (May 7, 2017)

Are the bass not eating at the feeders? What kind of food are you feeding? Is it the cheap plant based food? Bass won’t eat the cheap plant based food very well, but catfish and bluegill do. I feed our fish Purina Aquamax MVP and 500 mixed together, and the bass tear it up. These are fish based products with high protein. MVP is 43% protein and 500 is 41% protein. Our bass have huge bellies. Most of them look pregnant. The Purina products grow thick fish.


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## BASSINONE (Oct 24, 2013)

Not sure on brand, it says floating fish food on bag, i get it in 50 lb bags at the grain store next to me. As for walleye, i only have about 10 in the pond. I only stocked small gills for the bass to eat, now they are hugh eating the fish food like crazy.


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## JIMS SVT (Aug 19, 2004)

I’d catch those bass out and start over with some good bass from a fish farm that was pellet trained. They will eat the pellets and little fish your walleye don’t get.


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## M R DUCKS (Feb 20, 2010)

Remove all of the crappie


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## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

I agree with feeding quality food. If you can find a softer pellet that helps too. Bass need trained to eat pellets. Try grinding some bluegill fillets and mixing with some pellets and hand feed it to help it be more attractive to bass. Easiest fix is to add more bluegills and take out those big bluegill. Remove some of the bass as well. It's all about balance. Bluegills should always be treated as a harvested fish. Your minnows are just being wasted if you don't have a place for them to spawn. They need structure to adhere eggs to. Large rocks, old tile or scrap concrete (blocks or slabs). It also give them shelter. Buy breeder size minnows in March while it's cold and add them. However, the other fish will eat them up too. Add some structure like old christmas trees for you gills to hide in. I'd remove any bass caught over 20" as they are probably old and poor spawners. I think you probably just have to many predator fish period and need to remove some predators.


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## Muddy (May 7, 2017)

BASSINONE said:


> Not sure on brand, it says floating fish food on bag, i get it in 50 lb bags at the grain store next to me. As for walleye, i only have about 10 in the pond. I only stocked small gills for the bass to eat, now they are hugh eating the fish food like crazy.


What does the label list as ingredients? You want the #1 ingredient by to be fish meal if you want the bass to eat it. If you post a picture of the bag and label I can help ID what you are feeding. I have trained wild bass to eat pellets, but they will only eat high protein fish meal based pellets. Both wild and hatchery raised bass refuse to eat plant based fish pellets. You can tell the difference in pellets by touch, feel, smell, and weight. Fish meal products are very heavy(dense), oily, and stink like fish. Plant based pellets are light, dry, and don't stink like fish. Bluegill and catfish will eat either kind of pellet, but not bass. The bass want steak for dinner, not tofu.


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## BASSINONE (Oct 24, 2013)

Thanks guys for all your input.


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## PG2 (Jan 28, 2020)

I would say get rid of all of the crappie and walleyes, put in about 30lbs of the fathead minnows and 10lbs of golden shiners. The crappie in a 1 acre pond are bad news as well as the walleye, they are on top of the predator fish in such a small pond.


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