I was watching Hank Parker yesterday, and as
he was talking, he made a comment that got
me to thinking... He said that, during spawning,
lots of times the big females would not bite,
and that the smaller males were the only fish
that would take the bait. He surprised me by
saying, "I don't know why this is true", and
then went on to talk about the need for finding
larger fish that would bite in deeper water...
My point in making this post is the fact that I
have a koi pond in my landscaping, and they
have been spawning now for a couple of weeks.
In feeding them, I have noticed that during the
spawning frenzy, when the males are chasing
and harassing the females, that none of the fish
are interested in the pond food pellets. And,
after the spawning has settled down, only the
males, which are smaller, will come to the surface
to eat... while the females just levitate near the
bottom. Hours later, or perhaps the next morning,
they ALL feed aggressively... Now, in a pond
such as mine, the fish eat the eggs about as fast
as they are deposited in the moss around the
edge, but the feeding pattern is very predictable,
and I have learned when to, and when not to,
toss in a big handful of pellets... I think that
this feeding behavior as it relates to spawning
will transfer easily to how we fish out in the
"real world"... Dave
