Been putting a bit of feed into a smallish (3 acre) local lake over the winter months, though its been very sporadic lately due to ice etc, which leads nicely to the question.
The lake concerned is a mixed fishery, with a few larger carp, but mostly a mixture of everything you would expect, except pike. It's a confirmed fact that there is never much natural food in the lake, even in summer, despite abundant weed growth - even the EA are scratching their heads about why this should be, with the working hypothesis being that what IS produced is quickly eaten by the resident fish, before it gets chance to multiply and become more plentiful.
What has been going in, when water temps are not too cold, is mostly grain based - corn etc boiled up, laced with cooked maize, and mixed with any leftover bait / pellets etc immediately before being fed, and the fish seem to clear it.
Usually this is cooked up as a large batch, and will go into the lake over the next few days, but with so much ice, a recent batch has been sat in a cold garage, not much above zero, for nigh-on 3 weeks now, and is now starting to ferment - nothing dramatic (actually smells quite nice!) - and definitely NOT going mouldy etc just yet.
So - do I feed this into the lake, or dump it? With the exception of the perch in there (that eat everything else!), all species will normally feed on this stuff, and I think I recall reading somewhere that its intentionally done by some anglers (letting it ferment like this) before being used as a feed or hookbait.
The lake concerned is a mixed fishery, with a few larger carp, but mostly a mixture of everything you would expect, except pike. It's a confirmed fact that there is never much natural food in the lake, even in summer, despite abundant weed growth - even the EA are scratching their heads about why this should be, with the working hypothesis being that what IS produced is quickly eaten by the resident fish, before it gets chance to multiply and become more plentiful.
What has been going in, when water temps are not too cold, is mostly grain based - corn etc boiled up, laced with cooked maize, and mixed with any leftover bait / pellets etc immediately before being fed, and the fish seem to clear it.
Usually this is cooked up as a large batch, and will go into the lake over the next few days, but with so much ice, a recent batch has been sat in a cold garage, not much above zero, for nigh-on 3 weeks now, and is now starting to ferment - nothing dramatic (actually smells quite nice!) - and definitely NOT going mouldy etc just yet.
So - do I feed this into the lake, or dump it? With the exception of the perch in there (that eat everything else!), all species will normally feed on this stuff, and I think I recall reading somewhere that its intentionally done by some anglers (letting it ferment like this) before being used as a feed or hookbait.
