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First off I want to thanks pond boss and all of its contributors helping us 6 years ago to have a successful stocking of rainbow trout in our pond. We stocked it with 200 rainbows and over the last five years the kids gradually fished them out and we had years of fantastic fishing with the last year catching 7-9 pound monsters. Besides the fishing they were great eating. Well, we are done with that chapter and while trout were great they required a bit more maintenance time than what we want to spend over the next several years so we are researching and planning for the next re-stocking which we want to do this spring.

Here is the data on the pond:
1.) approx 1/2 acre, 70' x 220' rectangular
2.) 3-4 feet deep along one half the length and dredged out on the other half 5 years ago to 8-12'.
3.) 50 year old pond, built by my grandfather
4.) 20 gal/min. artesian well flowing in and anywhere from 0-10 gal/min outflow depending on time of year. input on one end and outflow on other. We can supplement that with a pump driven well for an additional 15 gal/min if needed (used for trout).
5.) Good crops of vegetation yet have not identified what yet.
6.) have two aerators in place with timer and temp controls to turn on/off if needed (used for trout)
7.) Have a Sweeney pellet feeder with 75 pound hopper with programmable timer and feed rate control.
8.) Pond is at our property in West branch, Michigan in the upper half of the lower peninsula approx 2 hrs from where our family lives and we have a couple of people who get up there 6-8 times per year to take care of things.
9.) We have approx $1K budgeted for 2011 to stock and feed for the fish.
10.) All trout are fished out yet we have a bunch of small bluegill, perch and ? in there (many hundreds) and they never grow beyond 4-6", stunted?
11.) We are willing to get rid of the current fish and start over.
12.) good ph levels and oxygen yet can increase the oxygen with the aerators. Also are willing to run the aerotrs during the winter to reduce icing and winter kill.

Objectives:
1.) Start a new stocking and growing cycle 2011
2.) grow fish for kids and adults alike to catch and have fun with. Mostly catch and release with some harvesting.
3.) lower maintenance and costs than our past experience with rainbows.
4.) creating a near self sustaining system. We are willing to add stock every several years if necessary and to run a feeder with a moderate amount of food yet want the ecology of the pond and feed stock to provide a good portion of the food.

Based upon my earlier research, I am inclined toward a program of warm water fish focusing on hybrid bluegills (want to grow them big to one pound+ or so) with some bass and other fish to complement and add feed stock. Ideas, suggestions. I appreciate your time to read this and offer your thoughts. thanks in advance.


1/2 acre pond in West Branch, MI. Already have stunted GSF, 5-9" YP, and plan to stock in late April: RBT, BT, HBG, SMB, FHM, and GSH
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One thing I have doubts about switching from coldwater to coolwater or warmwater fish is: If the pond was prime for rainbow trout what makes you think the water is warm enough for fish that need warmer water to reach acceptable growth levels? Not trying to be negative just wondering if that has crossed your mind? I know you'd cut off the well but something doesn't add up here for me. Let me explain:

I'm surprised you were able to keep a 1/2 acre pond cool enough for trout with 20 gpm artesian flow and an addition of only 15 gpm well. 35 gpm just doesn't seem like enough, so either you have more flow than you realize, with the artesian and well, or you've got significant artesian flow coming in somewhere else. I know you're outflow doesn't seem to indicate that, but you may have underground outflow as well as inflow.

The reason I'm skeptical is my little 1/10th acre steep sided pond still climbed into the 60's in the summer with 10 more gpms than you were using (45 gpms).

Again please don't take my post the wrong way. Just trying to help.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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pebaugh Offline OP
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Cecil,
I believe you helped us out 5 years ago when we went through our last rainbow stock program. If you remember, we had a previous stock cycle that didn't make it through the first summer due to the water temp getting too high. Subsequebnt to that failure and learning experience we did several things:
1.) Dredged out the pond to 10-12' in depth along one length where is previously was 3-5' deep. the other side is still shallow at 3-4'
2.) added a supplemental well that we constantly ran in addition to the free-flowing artesian well.
3.) Controlled the aerator based on air temp! Yes we found a method to turn on the aerators (2) only when the air temp was 60 or below. Agitating the water helped tremendously in lowing the water temp during the cool nights in northern Michigan (typically get into the 50's at night) When the air temp got above 60 we would shut them off and we were able to keep the water heavily oxygenated as well with this duty cycle. There were a few days during the heat of the summer where we approached 66 or so in water temp yet the fish went deep and survived for a good life cycle of 5 years. We may have lost a few during the heat of the summer yet it wasn't more than a few that we counted so we skirted by this issue that got us in the first place. We also could reverse this approach and heat up the water if we needed to by a few degrees.


1/2 acre pond in West Branch, MI. Already have stunted GSF, 5-9" YP, and plan to stock in late April: RBT, BT, HBG, SMB, FHM, and GSH
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I should mention that the average temp in the pond ranges from the low 50's to high 60's in the summer so it may be too low to properly grow the warm water fish. Are there bluegill varieties available for the tempos I mentioned. Of course we get to 39 F at the bottom in the early spring, late fall and winter. Maybe I should stick with the Rainbows yet through in 20 or so browns to feed on the small bluegills and perch already there. Ideas


1/2 acre pond in West Branch, MI. Already have stunted GSF, 5-9" YP, and plan to stock in late April: RBT, BT, HBG, SMB, FHM, and GSH
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Yes I remember you and was glad I was able to help. But I have a .62 acre pond that I know would not stay cool enough for trout if I ran in 45 gpm even with the things you were doing with your pond. My pond doesn't even have a shallow edge to it. But you either have more flow than you think or you are doing a lot of things right!

Personally a trout pond is such a rare gem to have I would stick with the trout. If I was you I would add brooks and browns to make it more interesting. John Nelski of Crystal Springs in N. Muskegon, MI has goldens you could add also.

If you use Aquamax they have a color enhancing feed you can order in the spring that will color up brook trout like this:



Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 01/23/11 04:57 PM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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I agree with Cecil, since you've been successful raising trout why not continue and add more variety, good trout ponds are hard to come by.
It's surprising he didn't mention his favorite, Tiger Trout. smirk



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If you are sure you dont want to stick with trout, I would stick with cool water tolerant species like yellow perch, walleye, smallmouth bass, and nothern pike.

A walleye, SMB, YP pond would be pretty cool and really good tasting. I would add some pumpkinseed sunfish and golden shiners as additional forage.


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pebaugh Offline OP
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We may well have an underground spring we are not aware of feeding additional flow into it. The geology of the area is quite interesting with an area between West Branch and Rose City that is ripe with many artesian springs and oil wells. We have a brook running through the property that is spring fed as well as the watershed feeding it.

The rainbows were a blast for everyone fishing and a great draw for the family. I like your suggestion to mix it up a bit and add some brooks and browns to it. I have a fishery 90 minutes away, Cedar Brook Farms who has all of these and more. I contacted him today about a possible early April delivery.


1/2 acre pond in West Branch, MI. Already have stunted GSF, 5-9" YP, and plan to stock in late April: RBT, BT, HBG, SMB, FHM, and GSH
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Originally Posted By: pebaugh
We may well have an underground spring we are not aware of feeding additional flow into it. The geology of the area is quite interesting with an area between West Branch and Rose City that is ripe with many artesian springs and oil wells. We have a brook running through the property that is spring fed as well as the watershed feeding it.

The rainbows were a blast for everyone fishing and a great draw for the family. I like your suggestion to mix it up a bit and add some brooks and browns to it. I have a fishery 90 minutes away, Cedar Brook Farms who has all of these and more. I contacted him today about a possible early April delivery.


Oh you are that side of the state! I don't know why I was thinking you were on the other side. I'm familiar with Cedar Brook and Jerry Kahn. When I studied fisheries way back in 76-78 at Alpena Community College we got our brook trout eggs from Jerry for the college hatchery.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Brown trout are bit more tolerant or warmer lower DO waters, but not much. If you stay with trout, you're still gonna have to put the time and money into maintenance. With brook trout, you're going to need even better water quality. Sounds like you have a rare gem though, mixing in different trout species can add to the fun...

Brook, brown, rainbow, golden rainbow and tiger trout are all good options. That's 5 different fish to catch. As the brown and tiger trout get larger, they'll feed more heavily on your stunted perch/sunfish than did the rainbows, but don't expect them to control their numbers and reduce stunting.

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Hey guys - it's time for me to weigh in on this - I am the "Pond Boss" for the West Branch, MI pond being discussed - Paul Ebaugh is my oldest brother and we are partners in this project. I consider the pond my large aquarium as I used to have tropical tanks etc.

Couple of clarifications, as I have spent many weekends working on this pond and measuring, testing and observing the results over a 5 year period.

Pond size is 60 x 225, so it is only a .3 acre, not .5 acre. Artesian flow is 15 gpm and the supplemental well runs only about 10 gpm. In-coming water temp is at 48 degrees. Reply to Cecil's input is that we do not have enough in-coming water to keep it cold. The secondary strategy was the thermostatically controlled aeration system. As Paul mentioned, night-time temps consistently dip into the 50, 40's, even 30's in the summer months. So, about 90% of the night temps are below 60! The aerator is set to turn on ONLY when temps dip below 65 at night. Believe it or not, we can get a full 2 degrees lower temp in just one night when the temp drops into the 40's. So, true enough, we don't have enough in-flow, but this temp controlled aeration approach is very effective on keeping the pond below 70. Even on a blazing hot 88 degree day, it is possible with these combined strategies to keep the pond at about 67 degrees. It is as Cecil mentioned a few years back - "walking on a ledge in a light wind". We lost 50% of the fish last stocking cycle and I think putting in 200 fish was too much for the pond size. Perhaps a smaller population (maybe 50-75) browns would not tax the water chemistry as much.

Michael Ebaugh

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Mike I sure agree with your idea of putting a thermostat on the aerator, I remember reading your post from 2006 about using a thermostat and I put one on mine in 2008.
I'm convinced it helps makes a big difference in lowering pond temps as our summer night temps get pretty cool.

One other thought, with your pond being small a good size artificial island should also help to keep temps down.



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Hey Guys -another question - one of cousins put a striped bass in probably 6 years ago. There was only one and it was about 18" long and easily viewed but seldom caught. I think we ended up catching this guy about three times before it was taken out at 20" long. The legendary striped bass was a stealth sentry of the pond for years - it even lived through the pond dredging, when the water was totally churned up / muddy for months and down to only 3 ft at the deepest section.

Question is- are striped bass readily available and even in a cool pond will they grow well?

2nd question - is it a good idea and how difficult and expensive to have a pro poison the existing population of stunted bluegills. There are at least tiny ones in there.

3rd question - If we decide to re-stock with trout, what number would you guys recommend in order to maintain healthy water quality, good chemistry / D.O. and limited algae blooms. BTW- the whole bottom is covered with filamentous algae mats.

And lastly, is it true that browns are harder to catch, even in a pond?

Michael


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