Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations trout question

Cooked my first trout last night. Pretty darn good if I do say. She was filled with eggs. Will the trout "spawn" in my pond? If so do I need to wait until a certain time to take anymore out? I am new to this and do not want to bother nate anymore than I already have with all my questions.

docg, I'm no expert but I guess you have Brook trout if their full of eggs, unless you have a stream connected to your pond or strong springs underwater, it's unlikely they would spawn.
You must have cool water supplying your pond being in N.C.

Forgot to mention brown trout spawn in the fall also.

I'm really glad you asked this question. It's been in my mind for several years.

I've asked the question locally, but never here on the forum. The answers I got back were kind of disgusting, even for my rather exotic palate. It may be why I don't like pond trout caught in the early springtime.

My trout fill with eggs over the winter. The locals say that when that happens, and they can't spawn, the eggs basically rot inside the fish, and it affects the taste of the fish.

Brooks of course spawn in the fall, as do browns and surprisingly there are rainbows that do too depending on the strain. My local trout rearing station spawns their rainbows in the fall. Rainbows have been manipulated to spawn just about any month of the year. We have a Skamania strain of steelhead that runs up the inlets to the Great Lakes in July!

Brook trout (not really a trout but a char) can spawn in ponds, but there has to be at least some upwelling with a good clean gravely substrate for success. Brook trout have actually spawned so successfully in some natural ponds they have overpopulated the ponds.

I witnessed brook trout spawning in a small lake in Massachusetts as a kid on an area that had upwelling. I knew it had groundwater upwelling as I noticed the bottom was ice cold (only a couple feet deep) in the summer when I waded there. I even observed some fry the following spring, and an angler once caught a beautifully colored brook trout in the lake that was far smaller than the state planted. However considering all the predator fish in the pond I doubt there was very much survival of the fry.

Eggbound trout are not uncommon in waters where suitable spawning conditions don't exist. Not sure about the taste part, but if they don't pass them they are reabsorbed, or the fish may die. Being eggbound is very stressful to female trout.

doc,
All of my female rainbows were busting full of eggs last month and the males were in full spawn mode as well. They are now mostly all back to normal and while the females dont have their eggs anymore, I havent yet ever seen any natural reproduction in a pond or lake.

kind of fun to be able to catch aggressive fish this time of year, eh??! what did you catch your trout with?

i cheated. aquamax nugget on a hook. hit it in about 2 seconds.
the boys got a kick out of all the eggs. of course the wife said it was mean. she'll get over it
doc

docg:

Here's an easier "pellet" to use. Stubby Steve's I've got a heck of a time poking a hook thru the AquaMax 600 pellets!

Doc sending you some stubby steve samples.

thanks greg
docg