Hi all, Sean from southern New Hampshire checking in.

We own a 14 acre wood lot with a 2 acre spring fed pond - currently covered with 6" of ice. It's got an average depth of about 10' and a max of about 15'. There are an estimated 8 - 10 springs that seep into the pond, depending on who you ask, there is also a spring that seeps up through the ground about 50 feet from the pond and trickles into it. A small brook rises from a spring not far from the the pond and flows through the property that runs almost at a constant 52 degrees but is in no way attached to the pond itself.

We stock it each spring and occasionally in the fall with primarily rainbow trout but from time to time we do browns to keep things interesting. We stocked brook trout for the first time this fall and so far they've proved to be entertaining while ice fishing. Aside from the trout we've also got a very stunted population of largemouth bass (which we are in the process of removing), a nuisance population of crappie (also in the process of being removed) and some real slab pumpkinseeds!

Quick story about the pond - it started life as a sand pit until they exposed a spring around 1962. There were always wet areas in the pit so the decision was quickly made to turn it into a pond and bring in heavy equipment to make it as deep as possible, well rumor has it they only got one good full day of digging before exposing 7 or 8 more springs and everything got too wet for the equipment. Fast forward to 2017 and the pond fell into the ownership of my family. Since then it's become a popular venue for many family events. We built a small cabin there primarily for storage but also for sleepovers.

We allow fishing under the following rules; fly fishing only, catch and release on trout. All other species are catch and kill. Some individuals even donate money to help pay for the stocking.

Looking forward to all this site has to offer!

Sean

Welcome Sean

Sean, what are your goals for the pond?

My end goal is to have as big of fish as possible.

Sean, glad to see your post, I am a fellow trout enthusiast. How large have your trout gotten so far? To your knowledge, have you had any fish kills yet. What types of food is available to sustain the trout? Do you supplemental feed?

Ken, in the past our trout growth has been slow due to the high competition from Bass and crappie. The trout we stock are typically in the 12" - 14" range and we would see maybe an inch or two in growth a year - we do have quite a few 18" - 20" trout swimming around though. However, now that we've greatly reduced the number of bass and crappie the trout growth has been better. I began giving them supplemental feed in the form of Purina Aquamax this fall and that has also greatly increased growth. As for natural forage there are tons of damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, scuds, chironomids and callibaetis nymphs. Establishing larger forge like minnows and crayfish has been tough due to the bass population but we have been regularly stocking shiners, dace and crayfish. As far as fish kills go the only time I've witnessed dead trout that were clearly not the result of predation was two summers ago when we had weeks of very hot temperatures and no precipitation, even with the springs coming into the pond the water still got too warm.