Opinions on feeding fish.

[arcFlash]

Greetings Everyone,
I dive moslty local lakes and would like to feed the sunnies a few times a year. Different lakes, different places. I don't want them to change their eating habits and see divers as the only food source or feed them junk. I was thinking bits of shrimp from the supermarket. I'd be carfull to not over feed. Probably chop up a tablespoon or two at home and release a little at a time durring the dive if I find a group of sunnies.

What's the impact? Any DNR issues?

[Shooter]

   I feed them as well. I use natural food sources that I find diving, ie clams, crayfish, snails  etc.

  When I am diving in salt water I use a different approach altogether....... I like to feed them 60" of sprung steel >. I sometimes shoot a small sheephead and start a feeding frenzy ;D Then the predator challenge begins. I am getting on a plane tonight for the FL middlegrounds! I hope shark is on the menu!

[freedivernd]

you know sunnies will eat just about anything.. including a bare hook.  I don't know how they take to dairy products but I've seen 'em chow down on a can of cheeze whiz.. and cat food shaken out of a baggie with a corner torn off.  Don't know what effect deep depths would have on that can of cheeze whiz.  I think you can tell when you get into an area where the fish have been fed.. the sunnies are right there... even attacking.. hey, I'd like you to check this video out of my daughter Lisa and a bunch of sunnies and crappies.. tons of fish.


Fred

[Appolion]

I've sometimes thought about bringing a baggie of corn down with me.

[Freedive WI]

I find that if I take a Dramamine before I get on the boat I can avoid feeding the fish altogether. 


Jon

[AandA]

Fred, the video was GREAT ;D.  I loved your edits and soundtrack!!

As to feeding fish underwater... although in the past feeding fish while underwater was supported, the position of most in the dive community has changed.  It quite simply is no longer appropriate to feed fish while diving.  The practice of feeding one life form to another or introducing other nonnative foods to the water is not a good practice.  Divers who feed fish inadvertently condition the fish to associate divers with food.  This alters their normal behaviors. 

Aly and I usually feed the crayfish to the bass, and the snails to the sunnies.  Then when we get hungry we jus put a little somethin on a hook and  catch one of these fish for our dinner > >.

[Drifter1430]

A three dollar container of Canadian Night Crawlers from a local bait shop, all chopped up, goes a long way in fish feeding. 

[LKunze]

My buddies and I do this too when we are messing around in the shallows at the end of a dive and it's a lot of fun.  The bass really like crayfish.  Even the sunnies will come in and take a nibble at one even though they are too big for them to eat.  If you ever dive Louise at Crosby it's quite evident that the bass associate divers with feeding time.  I've also noticed that crayfish are getting harder to find in Louise around the Eternal Bliss access which leads me to believe that divers have picked the area pretty clean. 

[MNLakeDiver]

in my opinion if your going to feed fish a good roll in some cracked pepper crackers works well for a breading 

we were feeding crayfish to bass one day untill a northern grabed a bass near my buddy and he called the dive.

[arcFlash]

I was told some time ago that feeding whole corn to fish and other things not accustom to it could harm them. Corn's a seed and as such has a tough shell that doesn't digest easily.  Is this true, will it harm the fish?