Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Just starting out with Rainbows,wondering about #s

Hi there,
My dad and I have a small pond in New Brunswick, Canada which we've started putting rainbows into. I've been trolling around the web looking for info, and found this site.

I'm wondering primarily about stocking numbers for rainbow trout. As I say, the pond is not big, probably about 80'x50', mostly about 5' deep with a few 9' deep holes.

We've put two small batches (50 trout each) in, and they seem to have done well. The first batch has been in for a couple of years now and weigh a couple of pounds. The second batch have been in for a year and are still only about 8" long. We've taken about 10 out to eat (a mix of the big and the small, unfortunately), we feed them a half quart or so of pellets each day

The two summers ago was pretty dry here in NB, and the pond dropped by a couple of feet by late August, we were surprised that he trout survived. This summer was wet, and the level never dropped by more than a couple of inches. In the winter, we get pretty thick ice on the pond. (maybe as much as 12 - 16".

Knowing all this, what sorts of numbers of trout can we expect to be able to support? I've looked around on the web, and have seen numbers ranging from 100 - 5000.

Thanks for any advice you can lend. This has been a fun project. I'll go take a few pics of pond and fish and add them in.

Welcome, LongReacher! Glad you found the forum and joined in. Sounds like a great project you have. I am not a trout guy at all, so sit tight for those who are to come along and give you some thoughts. We love pictures, so feel free to post some if you've got 'em!