For the first time ever I tried stocking my 3.5 acre pond in central OK with rainbow trout for the winter. I have some questions for the more experienced in these matters.
1) Do these fish naturalize and become fishable with flies or nymphs. I would not expect many surface hatches at this time of year but but I do see some midges frequently.
2) So far my most effective method of catching them has been trolling with spinners like Roostertails or Mepps. When the water temperature begins to rise, is there a "down and dirty" way to harvest as many as possible.
3) I have been feeding Aquamax and they seem to come up to it, especially in the evenings. What happens if I feed my leftover catfish food with lower protein to them? Does it have an adverse effect, or just not produce growth?

Layton, I don’t know much about catching trout out of a pond but I do know quite a bit about “down and dirty” catching AQMX fed fish.
Last fall I caught and released a 29 inch rainbow out of a North Georgia river on a “scud” fly, and it was regurgitating fish pellets from a upstream feeder.

The trick is turn off the feeder for a couple of days before fishing .
Use Cecil’s “PantyHose” pellet fly or Bruce’s Pom Pom fly for best results. Perhaps they will address this subject..

We were overpopulated with 5-6 # channel catfish in our pond that we could not catch until we discovered the trick of making them real hungry. Turn off the feeder for a couple or three days.

The first day fishing we landed 7 and broke off 11, 4-6 pounders on PomPom flies on 5 wt. fly rods. We have since scaled up to 9wt rods with 16# leaders and land most that we hook. What a blast – they will put a run on you like a redfish.

Still a few left for next spring and summer - counted 3 monsters yesterday but water too cold to get them to take a fly.

Good luck with the trout – Cecil is the expert.

N.E. Texas 2 acre pond – ¼ acre pond

I'm an expert? Not really, but I did stay at a Holiday Express last night!

What George says rings true. Keep in mind these are not really wild trout that are a fly fishermens' dream fish. They mostly likely have been feeding on pellets in a concrete raceway before they got to you. They're as domesticated as a farm cow when it really comes down to it. They typically are easy to catch and will hit anything they can get in their mouths if they are hungry. Match the hatch! Put a floating pantyhose pellet on a flyrod!

However if you want to give them feed they can digest easily, give them higher protein then catfish chow. Trout have a hard time with too many carbohydrates.

what is pom pom fly and the panty hose pellet fly and where do you get them?

darrell

The pom pom fly is a tied fly that is made out of pom pom material I believe that is immitates a flaoting pellet. You'll have to get someone else to explain this one to you as I 've never used them. Anyone? You could do a search as it has been covered.

A PPF or Pantyhose pellet fly consists of one to three floating trout pellets that have a piece of pantyhose stretched around them and then the hose is tied off with a piece of monofilament line. Excess hose is clipped off and you insert a small hook as in a salmon egg size hook into the hose.

The reason for the above is the pellets themselves are too difficult to hook (too hard), and with the above method you can cast the PP out and it will float just like a normal pellet. Having the scent of a pellet as they are the real thing the trout suck them up. I cast mine on a spinning rod with light line but I have had others put them on a fly rod.

Don't be surprised though if your trout aren't receptive to this floating treats until low light periods as in early morning or evening. In my trout pond you can throw pellets all day long during midday and swear there is not one trout in the pond. But come low light period time and they are crusiing the surface looking for pellets.

PomPoms are designed to be placed on little girls' shoelaces. They are made by Westrim Crafts of Van Nuys, CA. They are available at many craft stores.

They come with the hole already in them.

Even better, they come in brown!

Better yet, they cost a dime a million.

They sink very slowly and absorb scent readily. :p

...actually I've just been waiting for an excuse to use some of these crazy faces...

I have found that you can crush up some of the pellets using a variation of the old mortar and pestle concept. Put the pellet dust in a plastic bag with the pom poms, shake well and just let them sit until you are ready to use them.

Hey Bruce, just how do you use the smiley faces?

Well, when I post a reply the "Instant Graemlins" icons pop up just below the window I'm typing in. Then, TA-DAH!! there it is. I even thought of making an entire post of Graemlins to see if anybody could figure out what I was talking about. Kind of like charades.

Thanks for all the replies. Cecil. I was especially interested in your observation that the trout prefer to feed at dusk. That has certainly been the case so far for me. I have been hand feeding every evening but nothing shows up at any other time of day if I feed. I also note that the trout seem to be wary of the dock I feed from and will tend to stay far away in open water in spite of my trying coax them closer by selective feed placement. Has anyone else observed this?

In the years I have been growing trout in an earthen pond they tend to be light shy and only come up in early morning and evening. However be aware that may have also been when you supplier fed them too, so they are conditioned to feed at those times. And most fish are "crepusular" which means they prefer to feed at low light periods. You could try feeding them just after first light also. You could forego feeding in the evenings to get them conditioned to the mornings if need be and then resume feeding in the evening and morning combined. However this is dependent on your water temps and if you water temp takes a nose dive into the 40's you may only want to feed once a day.

I now have a very undomesticated strain of Lake Nipigon strain brook trout (a lake even north of Lake Superior) that typically only feeds just before dark and even well after dark. At other times of day they pretty much stay at the bottom.

As far as staying out in open water that is typical too although you may be able to coax them closer to the pier by gradually feeding closer to the pier.

I spent a couple years pursuing rainbows and cutts in stocked lakes/ponds in Colorado -- all of which are stocked hatchery fish.They are stocked as fingerlings and quickly take on the characteristics of wild fish. These hatchery fish proved to be suckers for attractor dry fly patterns -- either a Royal Coachman or red or yellow or orange Humpys. These patterns, in a #14 or #16 size on a 5X 9' tippet worked best after the water warmed up a bit. Feeding time was generally best in the morning from sunrise to about an hour out. After that, we would switch to olive green scuds (sinking nymph) and let them fall to the bottom and retrieve in quick short jerks -- serious strikes though so use a heavier tippet (4X) and hold on. We generally didn't bother trying to match the hatch as we had enough action on these attractor patterns. In the winter we would fish these same fish through the ice (likely not an option in your locale) using tiny ice flies tipped with wax worms under a small bobber and just hammer them. Have fun!