How to sell pond fish
Pond Management - For better fish growth
hi my name is Steve fender I'm from
fenders fish hatchery here we're based
here in Ohio we've been stocking ponds
and lakes and managing Lakes for since
1956 and what we're doing this video for
here today is to help you better manage
your body of water and grow big fish
basically everybody stock spawn one big
fish and we've done a video earlier on
pond stocking ratios and you want to
refer back that if you're stocking a new
pond to get the right ratio so you have
a good balance in your pond to begin
with what we're going to talked about
here is growing big bass big bluegill
big catfish whatever you have in your
pond or whatever your goal is for your
pond whether it's growing big bluegill
or big cats or bass
we're going to educate you on that so
you know how to do this primarily the
first thing you want to do is you want
to have a good balance of fish I have
customers come in with all kinds of
ideas things we want to do some good
some bad if I have a customer come in
and what's put in bass only I always try
to inform you need to have a forage fish
you have predators you have forage you
have to have both of them together or
you don't have a good balance when you
stock your pond with bass and bluegill
what you're doing is your bachelor your
main predator your bluegill is your main
forage fish bluegill will also act as
the control fish too as indeed a lot of
bass eggs and a lot of bass fry keeping
the bass from becoming overpopulated and
at the same time to reproduce them
making feed for the bass bluegill makes
such a good forage because they spawn
all summer long not necessarily the same
one but different sizes of bluegill
spawn all some are making feed all year
long for all your different varieties of
fish whether it's cats bass perch even
the other bluegill now the way you want
to enhance the growth of the overall
body of water general good management
and stocking properly will grow nice
fish you want to go to the next level
start feeding with pellets we sell a
pellet and you can buy it at your local
feed stores and like at keep in mind
when you buy fish feed you want to buy a
pellet that's small enough that they can
eat it comfortably and you're going to
focus mostly on the bluegill as far as
your feeding anyhow so you're going to
get a pellets about eighth inch in size
that floats and also find the highest
protein you can get 4050 percent protein
similar net in that
area is what you want to shoot for if
you buy 20 or 25% protein you'll find
out the bluegill just don't eat it as
well
they're not going to grow as fast they
won't like it you just won't have the
same results so keep in mind 8-inch
pellet and something in about that forty
to forty to forty five even fifty
percent range if you can find it that
will reel big bluegill when you grow big
bluegill big bluegill obviously make
more eggs make it more feed for your
bass when the eggs hatch out and make
fry also what happens when you're
feeding a bluegill they're not stealing
bass eggs and they're not eating that
eating the bass right so now your bass
population gets larger so now you're
going to have more big bass big bluegill
the whole nine yards so by feedeth
pellets is a very really big big benefit
now we have some customers that go
directly to the bass with feed and at
that when I meaning is they buy feeder
minnows Fathead minutes we sell a feeder
minnow here figure minnow that's about
inch to inch and a half and size adults
are two inches that's as big as you're
going to get a feeder minitor Fathead
minute to get so you're not going to
ever establish them in your pond because
of the fact that you know two inches
ventually going to get all eaten up but
when you put them in as in they spawn as
long as they're going to spawn four or
five times throughout the whole summer
making feed continuously and you have
you have a lot of brush a lot of
structure hiding-places form that's also
going to give the the fat head mitt as a
chance to survive long enough to
reproduce several times you'll want to
stock minnows every spring every fall
even through the summer whenever you can
and the more you put in the more the
bass out to eat fast you're going to
grow the bigger they're going to get now
the downside to all this when you're
pushing all this food into the pond what
you're going to find out as you're
fishing is going to be a little bit
tough fish by for two reasons either
hungry or you aggravate them till they
hit on a bait when you get to feeding a
bluegill on the bass aggressively like
this with pellets and minnows you're
going to find out that you've taken that
one element away now you're going to
have to become a better fisherman beings
they got all they want to eat they're
going to be harder to catch they're
going to be more choosy about what they
bite on but that's a sign of a good pun
when I have customers call me and tell
me they can't catch their fish that
typically is because they have a very
well balanced bond the thing is doing
very good so that's something you want
to keep in mind you are
have a little tougher time catching fish
so you just have to become a better
fisherman but Stockman's minnows is a
real plus a little bit of rule of thumb
if you're stopped if you're feeding with
pellets aggressively you can feed four
to five bags of feed per summer that's
fifty pound bags that's aggressive if
you feed two or three bags you're still
going to make a big difference is going
to help I've seen customers feed five
and six bags per surface acre of water
that kind of gives you a little bit of
rule of thumb what you're going to get
into as far as feeding now as far as a
minute stocking I have customers dump
anywhere from a thousand to ten thousand
in per acre it just depends on how
aggressive you want to be on growing
your fish a thousand per surface acre of
minnows twice a year will definitely
make a difference you're dumping more
food into the bottom end of the pond by
doing this you're going to find out that
everything in that pond will feed on to
minnows your bass your bluegill perch
crappie anything you have in there is
going to feed on minnows very well so
you're going to help everything grill by
following these guidelines I can
guarantee you will not have stunted fish
as long as there's food there they eat
they grow they can't be stunted so yes
this is all common-sense approach to
raising nice fish in your pond the other
thing is like I said earlier keep plenty
of brush and cover in your pond so you
have plenty of Very's to hide and you're
going to have more survival on your
little on your little minnows the other
thing that helps is you have a better
survival rate on your bass your bluegill
perch and crappie and stuff like that to
set helps to catfish will also eat on
pellets if you get the feeding catfish
on pellets they won't compete against
the bass so feeding the catfish they get
lazy they eat off the pellets and leave
all your other fish alone so here again
now you're making more fish in your pond
so you get more big fish out of your
pond so you know it gives you a chance
to raise big bass for trophy fishing or
is you just you want to take more fish
out to eat whenever you boost that it's
like fertilizing your garden the more
fertilizer you put to it the more these
your plants are going to grow the more
minah's you put to your fish or fish
feed the bigger your fish you're going
to grow my customers that do these kind
of practices have really really good
success and grow big fish the other
thing you want to keep in mind when
you're boosting these numbers like that
you want to make sure you either have
aeration of some kind of those bottom
aeration of surface area
and also make sure you have or if you
have water flow running in and whether
you have a spring fresh water runoff
whatever you want to make sure that your
oxygen levels don't get too low if
you're in an area where you have hard
winters like we do if you have a large
concentration of fish because you've
feeding them all season your likelihood
of a fish kill is a lot greater because
there's more fish use and more options
so that like I'm saying you need to have
some sort of variation if you don't have
a spring if you have a really good
spring that could take care of that also
but just make sure you have a winter
kill watch things out that way a little
bit the other thing is your perch and
crappie typically they won't feed on
pellets if you can sometimes get perch
to feed on pellets it's not very common
but the perch in crop we also feed on
the millet min is very well so that's
going to make more feed for them too so
then if you want stock walleye stock and
walleye you know you put Minna's in
whenever you put min is in you just
basically change the dynamics of the
whole pond you can do more of what you
want to do for this pond you get our
website at WWF energy calm you'll find
our product on our product page you'll
find my book I wrote a book here several
years ago that basically takes takes you
through the steps of raising fish on
management we control just anything pond
related it's all in that book so if you
go to our website check that out you may
want to get a copy of that to help you
raise your fish
you
