I just purchased 80 acres of land that has two existing natural lakes 10 acres and 4 acres in size that are connected by a channel that flows from the larger lake to the smaller lake. The smaller lake has a creek that runs into and out of it that has a small native population of brook trout. I trolled the lakes at night with a spotlight and found that both lakes are loaded with hundreds of thousands of minnows from 1" to 5" in size. I have released about 300 bluegills, 60 bass, and 40 walleyes into the larger lake so far. I plan on releasing 250 yellow perch, 250 black crappie, 50 rainbow trout, 50 brown trout, and 250 more native brook trout(there is a local hatchery that has wild strain brook trout taken from the same watershed years ago). I am hoping to get all of these fish to reproduce and establish a fishery that produces trophy sized fish of all of these species. I do not plan on feeding the fish. I am interested in any input that anyone may have that might be helpful.

Hey LW,

That sounds awesome! tropny size fish of all those species?? That's a heck of a big goal! Heck I can't get Trophy size fish and any species so I am not the guy you need to talk to. We would love to see some pics of your place though sounds pretty cool!! Hey welcome to the PBF. I wish I could have Walleye they are some tastey critters for sure!!

Hey Good Luck!

Just so you know native brook trout have a very hard time competing with yellow perch let alone other species. It's becoming a big problem in Maine where the yellow perch are an invasive species and are out reproducing and eating up the brook trout fry and fingerlings.

I doubt you'll see many native brook trout in short order unless you feed hatchery produced fish.

Leaky Waders...
welcome & sounds like a great place you just purchased.
post some pictures if you can.

Wow.

First, welcome to Pond Boss. I love your name! I always thought it was just me -- it only takes a few seconds for me to achieve "leaky wader" status no matter how new or expensive they are!

I grew up on farms in NW Wisconsin that sound a lot like what you bought. We had ponds/lakes ranging from about 4-5 acres to nearly 80 acres.

I'm not sure you will have a lot of luck with the trout reproducing, unless you have a lot of water flowing through some narrow and rocky areas.

I think all the rest will do very well. I believe that the bass, bluegill, crappies, perch, and walleyes will balance themselves out. The lakes will eventually balance with dominant forage and dominant prey over a few years. The trout may remain, but they will probably have to be re-stocked every few years.

I strongly recommend reading the "weekly observations" and other posts by our good friend "Dwight" in Minnesota.

We have a lot of perch and walleye experts on the forum. I'd also strongly suggest that you look several years back at articles in Pond Boss magazine, particularly at those articles by Dave Willis, and Mark Cornwell.

Regards,
Ken

There is already a reproducing population of brook trout that run upstream about a mile or so into the headwaters of the feeder creek and spawn. I saw hundreds of them last fall while deer hunting.

I hope I didn't sound too negative. Just stating what I know about native (non pellet fed) brook trout and how poorly they compete with other species.

Welcome aboard!

If feeding the fish high protein pellets is out of the equation for the longterm plan, I still may recommend helping those hatchery fish along by feeding them a few bags of the same food the hatcery uses to help them acclimate into their new environment. Then just wean them off slowly as you see fit.

Then is it possible to construct small ponds alongside the main lakes to raise supplemental forage in?

Or perhaps purchase supplemental forage fish?

Or create ideal habitat in the shallows of the main lakes to help boost the natural forage?

I suspect the hundreds of thousands of minnows in the 1-5" range will disappear pretty quickly with the inroduction of the predators. Your objective to achieve your goal of trophy sized fish needs to focus on making sure they always have lots to eat for their entire life.

If the brook trout can ascend a small feeder stream they may do better while in competition with the other warm water species. However, here in the east rainbow trout are the ones out competing the native brook trout in these small streams. Much of my family lives in central PA. There are many wild brook trout streams in the area. Some of which have been dammed into water retention reservoirs to serve the local communities. They most all still contain some fine "reservoir run" brook trout. They do well in the reservoirs but in the fall they run up the small feeder streams to spawn. The young trout then stay in these smaller streams for a couple of years until they get some size to them where they can better avoid being food for the warm water gamefish also found in these reservoirs. It's then they head down stream to the reservoir to feed on the more plentiful food supply available.

Yes stocked rainbows and browns have done a number on native brook trout along with habitat destruction. In Maine it's alarming how quickly yellow perch and northern pike are spreading in watersheds that never had them.

A brook trout may produce 10,000 eggs. A yellow perch 10 times that, or more.

I got a few nice perch to mount several years back that were caught in Moosehead Lake, Maine which is not know for Yellow Perch. The couple from Indiana caught so many perch in one place they started to worry if they were over the limit. A trip to a local baitstore told them there was no limit and they were exotic invasives.

LW, you might give your BRKT some help in the creek by putting out more cover in sunny area's, you could put large pine branches across the creek to help shade it and keep temps lower.
Also putting in more underwater cover like pvc pipe in 2 and 3 inch diameter & about a foot long, cover them with rocks to hold them down, small clay pipes would work well also.

The stream that runs thru my land has a naturally sustaining population of BRKT but the numbers have increased substantially since I started putting in structure and cover.
Unfortunately as has been mentioned if RBT & BRNT have access to the creek from your pond the BRKT population could really suffer.