I have a 3 acre 50 year old pond in Northern Virginia. There are at least 4 9lb + bass and a seemingly healthy population of bass + bluegill. I add fatheads on occasion and feed tens of thousands of Japanese beetles with modiifed traps I made. Just added a big Vertex aerator. Also have grass carp.
I would like to add some Tiger Trout this fall and see if they can holdover through next Summer. I am happy to supplement them with feed + add baitfish too.

Any suggestions on stocking rate + minnow types ? Is this a really bad idea?

I'll be interested to hear how this works out for you. Please post your progress. Also I'm curious how you are trapping the beetles. Can you describe what you are doing? Are you using something to attract them? We have tons of them around my place and if I can turn them into feed that would be great!

Larry

order beetle trap with yellow plastic top includes replacable attractor (not the kind with the paper bag trap). take a 5 gal plastic water bottle cut the bottom off somewhere around 2/3s way down find inner tube that will fit over bottle glue or tape (super glue works platic to plastic) trap to top of water jug

makes an awesome floating trap (anchor where ever you want) beetles are attracted to trap lure + yellow color enter trap fall into water inside inner tube sunlight coming through clear plastic water jug illuminates beetle floating inside the inner tube fish chow down.
I have upwards of 50 fish crwding around my floating traps one 6lb + bass and even a large snapping turtle
I can post pictures and specific parts needed later

Could be a bad idea. Sounds like you are trying to put coldwater fish into a warmwater pond. I know the article in Pond Boss said tigers are hardier than other species, but I'm here to tell you they are still a coldwater fish. If you can't keep temps below 65 somewhere in the pond that has at least 5 ppm of D.O. throughout the summer your tigers will be dead tigers.

You could just plant some and see what happens. However I would be skeptical especially at your lattitude.

I tried feeding bettles to my bluegills that I had trapped and my fish did not want them. Don't know why.

In addition to Cecil's concern, I was also thinking about predators and prey! Those 9 pound largemouth bass would dearly love to eat a 8 to 12 inch tiger trout, I suspect. The trout are fusiform (torpedo shaped) and soft rayed (no spines to get in the way).

I don't know if it still true, but the Colorado state record largemouth bass came from an impoundment out near the Wray hatchery. They stocked the impoundment with catchable size rainbow trout (e.g., 8-10 inches), and those big bass fed very well on those naive trout from the hatchery.

So, I guess that I'd suggest you consider what size of tiger trout you would stock. What would it take for them to be big enough to avoid being eaten??

I don't have any direct experience with this situation, but I think this is good food for thought.

Dave

You are certainly right Dave. Big bass love trout! That 22lber out of Castic Lake in Calif plus a number of other double digit fish I have read about from there were caught on 10" + rainbow trout type lures. It is illegal to fish with trout as bait in Calif (someone must have created that rule for a reason?. I was figuring on buying 12" fish and seeing what happens. If the bass eat them ,then I guess I will have som double digit fish. My twin % year old boys love to fish so they can catch trout for a while and then maybe a real lunker bass. Water temp today was 76 degrees on the bottom in 10' ft of water (aeration is good but makes the bottom warm too) so they probably wont holdover through next Summer.

Cecil my panfish have been eating beetles for a few years. Originally I tried dumping dead beetles from the traps but they didn't seem to like them. They smell pretty rank after a little while or maybe the fish are looking for some movement from the beetles? Keep trying. A simpler feeder might consist of a good Trap/attractor on top of a long PVC tube which dumped an inch or two above the water. Japanese beetles are bad fliers and I think if they fall for a foot or two and only have a few inches to recover before being trapped in the surface tension of the water they are fish fodder.

Interesting. That could be it on the bettles. Mine were probably not fresh. If your water temp was 76 on the bottom you can forget trout except during the cooler time of the year which is an option.

Dave, I never thought about the predator relationship. Good point.