I have an established (over 30 year old) 1 acre pond. It used to be a quarry so the walls are a 15 feet drop off expect for a few shallow (1-4 feet deep) areas. It is currently stocked with 80 8-10 inch brown trout which I don't see a lot but using an underwater camera I can see them and they look to be doing well. The trout were put in to eat the leeches at the beginning of the summer. They don't seem to be doing their job as yesterday I found 20+ small ones under my paddle boat. The pond has a large fountain which aerates and circulates the water. It also has tons of bugs. Thousands of minnows (in some places I can dip a small hand net in and get 25+), crayfish and 5 snapping turtles (I like them and won't get rid of them). Is there any leech eating fish that will help but not breed. I got the trout because they won't breed but they are not working well and I talked to someone who said trout didn't work for leeches that well. So I am just wondering if anyone has suggestions

Thanks

HBG will eat leeches so will walleye

They would breed though right? Thanks

HBG do breed given that spawning areas are available, but they are mostly male offspring. I have heard percentages in the range of 65 to 95% male YOY.

If you have that much forage maybe you could just add more trout. Probably going to just take 80 fish a certain amount of time to work through it all, if they can. It would seem reasonable that 160 fish would work through it twice as fast. Then whenever you get it where you want it start removing trout.

Assuming all you care about is getting rid of leeches.

Yellow perch will wipe out your leeches in no time but will spawn. Trout on the other hand will eat the perch.

Win win in my books.

It is a possibility to stock only female yellow perch that are hand selected during the spawning season. This provides very good control of perch numbers and no recruitment from spawning. Your pond could easily handle up to 400-500 female perch that would grow very big (12"-14") using the available natural foods and benefiting from lack of other perch competition. IF you stock pellet raised or trained perch, similar to that of trout, you will be amazed at how big you can raise yellow perch. Harvesting perch is similar to harvesting trout - need to restock to desired density.

Thank you all for your responses. I will either add trout or consider adding a new species from your suggestions next spring.