For the last two years, we have stocked trout in the winter for our HOA to have catch and keep winter fishing. It has been a great success. We have several ponds that we stock and have a TX Hunter feeder until ice up. This year we stocked two of our traditional ponds, park pond (3/4 acre, 100 lbs of trout ) and commons pond (2 acreage, 200 lbs of trout) the second week of November. These are similar in stocking rates for the last couple of years. I have been checking these ponds the last two weeks. No action of feeding and property owners report hardly any trout caught.

I did water tests yesterday on the Commons pond. All our ponds are about 2 feet low due to drought. My results
pH 8 to 9
Ammonia 0.5 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Phosphate 0 to 0.25 ppm

I see no signs of a major fish die off. People are by these lakes everyday so they would have reported a fish kill. Checked for signs of Otters, no fish bones or kills around the bank.

Suppose to do another stocking of trout this week but want to make sure water quality is not an issue first. Any thoughts and suggestions appreciated.

I'm no water quality expert but I did find this on the google.

PH for Trout

Thank you for posting the article. We do have FA growing in the pond. The water is clear due to lack of rain fall. I took the water tests at 10 am. The article says pH would actually increase in afternoon. So I am thinking it is higher in the afternoon which could have effected the trout.

One of the more experienced fellas may be able to give more info. I'm still a rookie playing in the new world of pond management.

Would be interesting to see if you can tell a difference between morning and afternoon PH.

MOpond, what is the pond water alkalinity? What was the pond water temp when the trout were stocked?

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I did not have a water test to know alkaline when we stocked. Water temps were in the mid 50’s.