Feeding Program for Your Fish with the Pond Boss

Looking for the best way to feed your fish. Learn about how to create a feeding program for your fish with the help of Bob Lusk, the Pond Boss.

You built the pond. You put the habitat in it. It rained. You stocked some fish, and you’ve been feeding the fish. Now, how do you know if your feeding program is really working?

Well, you’ve kept a good log of how much feed you’ve fed. You’ve changed the feed when you thought you should. Go out and catch a few fish. Weigh them and measure them. Take some time. Get a good sample maybe fifteen or twenty fish at a time, and try to catch a variety of sizes of fish and weigh and measure those. For example, if you can catch some little bluegill and maybe some bigger bluegill compare those to each other. Catch some bigger Bass and some smaller Bass. Weigh and measure those, and you’ll see these graphs up on the screen.

The one on the left shows Largemouth Bass, for example, it’s so it shows a 10-inch bass should weigh ten ounces, a 12-inch bass should weigh 12 ounces, a 14-inch bass should weigh 1 lb and 7 ounces, and so on. Compare your fish to these fish. If they’re at or above that average length and that average standard weight, you’re doing great. Keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working, but let’s say, for example, you catch a few fish and some of them are fat and sassy, some of them look a little bit average, and maybe a handful of them are a little bit underweight. Well you might just change the type of feed you’re feeding or change techniques.

Maybe you’ve got an automatic feeder. It goes off once a day. Well some fish are feed hogs. You’ll get the most aggressive fish coming up to that feeder and eating that feed, then cut back on the feed but increase the frequency. Sometimes I’ll set a feeder to go off three times back-to-back ten minutes apart. Maybe feed for two seconds, wait ten minutes, do it again, wait ten minutes, and do it again. That’s one way to get some uniform growth.

It depends on your goals. If your goals are to grow some big fish fast, feed one time a day all the feed that the fish will eat in five to ten minutes. If you want uniform growth feed more than once a day. Feed two times, three times, sometimes even four times a day. Be careful not to put too much feed in.

A pond is like a garden at some point you’re going to need to harvest some fish, and if you’ve watched those fish and compare their lengths and weight as they begin to reach average or below average a little bit, that tells you when its time to take a few fish. With bluegills throw the biggest ones back. They’re the fastest growing fish you’ve got in the entire pond. Take the next size down, and with Largemouth Bass take the fish out that are the young of the year. They’re maybe 10 to 12-inches long and maybe not quite as heavy as the bigger fish. Throw the big fish back. Take the medium-sized fish out. It’s a good plan for you.

So listen to this, you’ve created this wonderful environment. It’s beautiful. Your fish are growing. Go do what we love to do. Catch a few and compare them, and if you see they’re growing like you want. They’re meeting your goals. You’ve gotten where you want to be. That’s how you go to the next level to better care for your fish.