Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Just registered... So many questions...

Hello everyone. I've been viewing this forum on a regular basis for years, and should have joined a long time ago. Here's a little about my pond:
I bought property a few years ago with a 1 acre pond surrounded by woods. The deepest portion being about 4 feet. There are several feet of black silt/muck at the bottom of this pond (I would assume from many years of falling leaves).
Last spring I hired a contractor to expand the pond. He cleared a few acres of trees next to the original pond and dug out a new 1 acre pond that is 16 feet at the deepest point. He dug a large 8' deep/20' wide channel to connect the two ponds. The soil is solid clay, and its filled mostly by run off and ground water. The only outlet is an 8" culvert covered by stones. The pond filled within a couple months, and I installed a Koenders 16' windmill with the airstone in about 14' of water. The windmill runs about 40% of the time. Early last fall, I stocked: 75 perch, 20 channel catfish, 75 rainbows, 10 brook trout, 30 brown trout, and a few pounds of fathead minnows. The perch must have spawned this spring as I've seen hundreds of 1" perch swimming in the shallows. From day 1, the trout would readily take a fly or pellets. However, for the past month, I haven't seen any sign of the trout. I haven't seen the typical jumping for insects at the surface and I can't get them to take a worm at any depth! I haven't seen any floating fish either. I have no way to measure disolved oxygen, but the water temperature is 74 degrees at the surface and 53 degrees at the bottom. Visibility is about 3.5'. I have a small amount of duckweed floating on the surface, and a substantial amount of green slime (frog eggs?) in the shallows. Today, I pulled the airstone to clean it, and I noticed the bucket, stone, and hose within a few feet of the bottom was stained black with what appears to be a thin layer of slimy silt (it didn't smell pleasant). Can any of you tell me if the odor from the bottom of the pond is normal? Do you think the trout may still be alive down there? Is the water too warm? What's the cheapest way to measure DO? Do you think my windmill is adequate? Was it a bad idea to connect the old, shallow, mucky pond to the new pond? Any suggestions on removing the thick layer of silt from the original pond? What do you think about the combination of fish I stocked?
Sorry about asking all these questions at once, and thank you so much for the help!

I am able to catch about 70% of the trout each spring. The rest perish, at least I presume that, and have only seen one float in all that time. As temps rise, the trout definitely go deeper, seldom coming to the surface to feed. In the spring, they are feeding at the surface and hammer the bait/lures. As it approaches mid July, they are about done for and in the deepest/coolest water. You definitely have to fish differently for them then. They do not hammer it like when surface feeding, at least in my pond. However, you can catch them, but expect it to be way different in approach.

Are tilapia legal/available to stock for you?

Hello trout whisperer, I'm in Jerome MI which is in Hillsdale County. My pond is now about .13 acres and the trout haven't been biting right for about 5 weeks or so, it's what they do. When the weather warms up, the bite goes down, way down. My pond is a bit different then yours though, I am now at 13.5' deep in 50% of my pond and my aerator runs at 8'. I am currently running aeration all day long as well as a 100gpm fountain (I'm actually trying to cool the surface water through evaporation) which only draws from 1.5'. My water temp is 70 degrees all the way to the bottom for the past two weeks.

I quit feeding my trout when the "warm" weather finally stayed. When we got to a few days of 80+ degrees my pond got 78 degrees and I lost two 28" goldens. A few days later I lost a small golden but haven't noticed any others dead since then and haven't lost a fish, that I know of in two weeks or so. I know the trout are still there, they can now be seen hitting an insect from time to time in the cooler 70 degree water.

In your set up, I'm a little concerned about aeration. A windmill aerator only runs when you have wind so is it enough O2 for your pond? I don't know. You have very large ponds compared to mine and I'm attempting to super oxygenate the water at maximum O2 levels which is easier in a small pond. If you throw out a bobber with a simple crawler and wait, even 15 minutes, a trout won't bite?

Where is your pond located? You seem to have good temps at the bottom but if the bottom layer is O2 void, it doesn't do any good. Did your top layer of water get very hot this summer?

I'm a newbie to all this, just put my pond in last year, but have been able to nurse these trout along through this summer and I think they're going to make it for this year. The real experience people will chime in and ask much better questions and have better answers.

I forgot to mention, I started with 50 rainbows and 10 goldens. Rainbows were 14" Goldens were 4 at 20"+ and 6 at 14". If I want a trout right now, I can get one to bite on a crawler but it takes time and you better be ready to eat it because it will probably die after you catch it. Warm water is very hard on trout.

Hey Tim, I find the crawler is the best too when it gets to the point that they want nothing else due to warm temps and near death. I put a weight a bit up from the hook, just enough to get it out into the deep water and let it set on the bottom. Eventually the trout will pick it up and move about with it, but I have to let them set the hook, otherwise its always a miss. COMPLETELY different than when the water is cold. And yes, they won't survive. This has been a cooler summer, so trout will do better than normal if they have any chance to make it year round.


Troutwhisperer- to get rid of the muck, you need air mixed in with it. Catch 22 with that- mixing air with it might warm up the bottom so much the trout won't make. You might have to experiment to find the way that will work best you.

I believe I can purchase tilapia here. Do you think they'd help with the duckweed?

Tim, thanks for your help.
I've spent many hours during the past month watching a bobber with a crawler at every possible position in the water column. I've never had a problem catching the trout until now. If I let the crawler sit long enough, eventually I'll catch a perch. In the past, the trout would gobble up feed, take worms/flies and hit insects on the surface. I'm assuming there is a disolved oxygen problem, but the perch are doing great and I thought their DO requirements were almost as high as the trout's. I guess I've been hoping it was possible that we the trout were so busy eating perch minnows and tadpoles that they had no interest in anything else. Also, my pond is in Genesee County, and I'm pretty sure the surface temperature hasn't exceeded 76 degrees.

TroutW, I'll bet you are right on the surface temp, my pond has gone to 78 on top and through the entire column for one day. The very next day I had it down to 74. Genesse is a little cooler then us generally so 76 sounds right for you. Fall is coming soon so you'll know soon enough if trout are left by simply feeding them or trying to catch them again. All I have in my pond is trout so any bite is a trout, easy for me that way.

Gosh I wish I could say that!