I dug a 1/2 acre pond last year. It filled this spring and I put 10 lbs of fhm in may. They have reproduced nicely. In June I put in 86 rtb. Within 24 hrs 48 died. My theory is shock for heat and stress in transport. It was more experiment by me and the new owners of the trout farm. The others have survived and r doing quite well. I typically feed twice per day. The pond is 15 ft deep I the deepest spot I have an aerator and fountain. I have rocks around 2/3 rds of the pond from the surface and down to 10 fow. Overall the pond is doing very nice.

Here r my questions.
I use to aerator all day. I now have a timer and have alternated 12 hrs for the aerator at night and the fountain during the day. Have much should I aerate for rtb? How much during winter and ice up?

I want to stock other fish this fall and want some opinions. I really enjoy the rtb and will plant more once it cools. I'm thinking about 100 or so.

I also was thinking either of the following routes. 50 yp and 25 smb and 10 cc.
OR
100 bg 25 lmb and 10 cc.

I'm not worried about bg nipping when swimming.
I will manage and feed as necessary.
I will eat these fish
I will manage for either monster yp or monster bg or both if possible.
I was thinking a rtb yp and smb pond is much more unique than a run of the mill bg lmb pond
Opinions, thoughts, guidance r greatly appreciated.
Please provide thought and suggested stocking rates and stocking times.

This is what I have decided thus far.
I will keep it a cold water fishery.
I'm getting 200 rbt on Friday.
First week in October I'm going to put in 200 5-7" yp, 25 4-5" smb and 25 6-8" cc.
I will continue with feed and aerate all day.
Any thoughts?
I know I'm new to the site and it's hard to respond to a newbie but I'd love to hear from someone.
Thanks.
Reddhead

Welcome Redd. I like your idea of a cold water fishery, quite a few on here have similar ponds. The CC seem to be the puzzler, for me at least. Together with the RBT, the YP, and the smallies, they make up a pretty large predator base....those FHM probably won't last long.

Have you given any thought to additional forms of forage? Even with supplemental feeding, a diverse and plentiful natural forage is a huge asset.

Unless you really like to eat CC, I would pass on stocking them. If you want them for the table, harvest young, and never release one.

Are all of the fish pellet trained? I agree, the CC are more of a warmwater fish and won't do well in the pond.

Aeration, you'll want to keep the pond open with the bottom diffuser. That will need to be placed at 1/3 the total pond depth for the winter, and close to shore so anything that goes into the open water can get out without having to climb up on the ice.

I will also add golden shiners. Yes the fish r pellet trained.
Cc r excellent to eat and yes I would eat them. There is a lake not far from me that cc r quite easy to catch ice fishing and they sure r tasty.
Thanks for the aeration info. Do I just run the aerator all day? Or should it b on a timer?

I run mine 24/7. It helps keep well oxygenated water near the bottom of the pond which helps with the reduction of muck build-up.