Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain fish will not bite

The jar test is to fill a glass jar with stained water, and let it set for a week. If the muck settles to the bottom, things generally are not very bad, if it is still murky, there is some sort of chemical in balance or floating clay. These other guys know a lot more about it, but it is an easy test and gives these proffessionals a lot of info.

Where in Wisconsin are you? Depending on the location, wildlife could be partly responsible.

We took out the fish locator this past wknd, and could not locate any large fish of any kind. So now looks like all we have are the 2" offspring of the original hybrids we put in and the 3-5" trout(approx.#100) we put in this spring. We have noticed an osprey hang ing around alot lately. Have not caught him w/any fish. The water temp at 2" is 73-77 degrees. Have not checked the various depths yet. so looks like we start over but with what? We are going to attempt to seine some of the little bluegills out. But don't believe we will restock until next spring.

I think trying the seine is a good idea, at least you'll have an idea of what's really down there, or not.

As far as restocking goes, if it were me, I would find out where the original fish went before I put in any more.

Try the seine, or a trap, or fyke net.(or all three).

I have to agree, find out where the others are.

Are you interested in staying int he trout species or brodening horizons.

I like some all trout dams.

We had rainbows, now thinking maybe browns. But we need to figure out where they all went, whether it be 2 or 4 legged predators. Also the water temps concern me at 2 ft it was 73 to 77. The trouts prolly won't like that. We will try to check the deeper areas. Need a species that won't overpopulate a .6 acre pond. We thot we had that with the rainbows and the hybrid blue gill. Back to the drawing board.

nils, are HSB allowed in Wi?

Will you be fishing the pond in the colder months? (even through the ice?)

I still think HBG would be a good panfish for your pond. I don't know of any other that has a lower fecundity. Trout will definately do better in the colder water, providing there is enough O2 during the winter. Whether or not they will survive the summer heat is questionable. If you get a inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometer that should allow you to get temp readings down to about 10'.

See if a thermocline sets up in your pond. If the temps stay below 70°F above it, then I think the trout would make it thru the summer.

The trouble Ive seen trout have is when the water hits 80 and dont drop below 70 at night, but that is in river water too.

I'll bet they can find some cool pockets of water to seek relief in, plus my gut feeling is that flowing river water would have a bit higher levels of O2 than pond water.

Checked the water temp in the deepest hole(14 ft) and it was 64 degrees, at the surface it is 70. So the water temp should not be causing the trout or hbg any trouble. However, we started the aerator up which sits in the deepest hole and we noticed a very smelly odor. We had it turned off during the hottest part of the summer(June, july and part of August) we are seining this wknd.

Did you stop running the aerator with the bad smell or leave it running?

Smelly odor indicates no dissolved oxygen in water around the area where the aerator sits.

we decided it is better to leave it run at this point, since the water temp doesn't appear to be an issue. the trout or larger hbg aren't anywhere to be found in the pond So we are starting over depending on what we find when we seine.

Nils, good thing that you are possibly starting over. Starting up a bottom diffuser aeration system that quickly could create a fishkill.

I have been told that running the bottom diffuser in the summer months also creates issues with the warming of water and trout. so consequently we turned it off, but i spose we should have run it occasionally at nite. Seems like a balancing act that goes on between water temp and oxygen levels constantly all summer. damned if u do and damned if u don't. Maybe lmb won't be so particular w/temps. Not sure if hlmb are available in this area. So disheartening when u go from 14" trout to nothing.

Nils, I think you should move your diffuser out of the deepest hole and run it in a little shallower water at night only. You nailed it when you said it's a balancing act with trout! Moving the diffuser to shallower water will leave the deeper cooler water undisturbed, but should bring up DO levels ~ running at night will prevent over-heating of the water column.

In addition to moving your aeration to shallow water you could add a thermostat to your air pump and set it to operate at air temps. below the pond temp.

I ran my bottom diffuser just at night when temps were below 70 deg, but that mixed the water column too much with the upper, warmer water. The trout died.

If I get a spare 2 days I'll build the aeration system that I think will solve that problem.

we do have two separate diffusers and the larger diffuser we could easily move to a shallower area. We will try this for the future. Even in the winter time it would prolly be better if one were in a shallower area so as not to cool the deepest part so much. Thanks for the thot.