# Fianlly Feeders



## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

I finally am getting the feeders in on the club pond. I found a local source for Aquamax 400. (Grafton Town and Country)According to the feeder instructions the feeder will cast .8 pounds in 4 seconds. 

I put the feeders on swing arms that take them out 6 feet from the tree's they are attached to and over water. This was done to deter theft (you can't eliminate theft, but at least they would have to use a saw or bolt cutters to get them). 


So I want to set the feeder on the north end to fire for 4 seconds just after sun up. That is when the sun gets on that side of the pond. On the south end I want it to fire at 1/2 hour before sunset because it is under tree's and that is when the sun is on that water. 

1.6 pounds a day in a .4 acre pond. The bluegill population is good, maybe just a little heavy, and I want to thicken them up some. So, how does 1.6 pounds a day sound? I can go to 2 pounds but really no more than that due to expense.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

Get ready for a lot of algae if you over feed.... If you want to thicken them up, take some out. A little less food but bigger fish.


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## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

hang_loose said:


> Get ready for a lot of algae if you over feed.... If you want to thicken them up, take some out. A little less food but bigger fish.


Already got that. At least it's not as bad as the last few years because I flooded the geese nest sights. Old pond, dug in 1962, gonna have such problems.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

One more thing garry, I don't feed on windy days or when its raining all day. The pellets usually end up against the bank where most of them are wasted. If you can, save your fish food on those rainy-windy days.


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## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

hang_loose said:


> One more thing garry, I don't feed on windy days or when its raining all day. The pellets usually end up against the bank where most of them are wasted. If you can, save your fish food on those rainy-windy days.



Windy days are not an issue. One of the problems with the pond is that too little wind gets to it. Even though the trees are 75 yards away on the south end they are very tall and very thick. I've seen the tops looking like they are going to break off in wind, yet the pond barely has ripples.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Gary, I'm not sure what feeder your have but I think you should set it at 1 second for 1/2 hr before dark and observe for a couple of days. If they can clean it up in 15 min go to two seconds and so on. Once you have have how much they can eat dialed in, add a sunrise feeding for 1/2 the time your evening feeding works out to.

My fish seem to eat better in the evening which is the reason for the shorter duration.

I highly recommend getting the weeds under control before starting feeding. Ideally, the excess waste the fish will be making will be used by planktonic algae shoring up the food chain rather than turning into fertilizer for filamentous algae and doing nothing more than making fishing difficult.

Don't use fish farm feeding data for a gamefish pond. You are merely supplementing what is produced naturally. Build up slowely, it takes time for the pond to adjust for the increase in waste.


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