Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Help stocking old pond with rainbows and browns

I have a small 1/3 acre pond in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It is kidney bean shaped and is 9-10 at the deepest point average depth is about 6-7. I believe the pond is about 40 year old. It does have springs that come In on the east side it also has a one acre swamp that flows into it though it does slow to a trickle in the dog days of summer. I would estimate the flow coming out to be about 20 gpm in the summer. The pond runs north to south and is shaded about half the day in the summer. From the trapping I did last summer the only fish I believe to be in there are FHM and northern red belly dace. There are lots of cattails around the pond there is also a small patch of curly pond weed. It has a lot of muck on the bottom due to neglect may be up to 2 ft. Under the muck is a nice sand gravel bottom with some cobbles and boulders. I do plan to put up a wind mill aeration system this spring. Any thought or tips on wind mill aeration would be appreciated. I plan to run that for a few weeks befor I stock with 100 6-8 RBT 25 BRT. Any help tips comments would be helpful I have done a lot of reading befor posting.

Thank you very much
Mike

Sounds like fun? Does the pond get much sun light in the winter? Much snow drif ting on the ice? Your windmill should help with that

Yeah it gets quite a bit of sun in the winter. No it doesn't get much drifting snow in the winter it's down in a hole. The east side where the springs come in never freezes solid even in the coldest of our winters witch commonly hit -20f.

If your gpm's are accurate from the spring it sounds like this should work IF your spring is providing cool water in the under 50 degree neighborhood. I know your climate well as I camp, fish, hunt up there a bunch. Your summers usually aren't so brutal as to get your water temps in such a pond above 70. With your added flow, given it's cool water, I don't think you'd have any problem keeping water temps below that 70 degree mark.

As far as the aeration, windmill aeration will at least help you with your critical time, winter. Keeping some water open with the windmill and then combining that with any spring flow which could create some open ice sounds optimal.

From the face of it, I think you have a great plan. Put an auto feeder in there and I'd say you are set (I'm assuming you might not be able to hand feed all the time).

I have a .2 acre pond down here in Hillsdale County which is way south of you and all but one summer I've gotten my trout through the summer. I'm 14' deep with an average depth closer to 6 or 7. I do have Geo thermal water going into my pond but not at enough flow to affect my water temp favorably in the summer. I also have no shade and your pond sounds like you'll have a big advantage in that regard.

Have fun, I think you have a good set up.

I put trout in my pond once in awhile. It does have other fish in it. I find 50 RBT are about the limit for my 1+ acre pond. When I put more than that, I see slowed growth. Mine don't make it over the summer. They are in from oct to may and I can get them to a consistent 3#.

Consider a Becker Windmill which is very well built and more durable that the others. In the late fall, you might want to move the diffuser close to the east side where the sping keeps open water to expand the size of the open water area during winter.

A windmill with a good diffuser is capable in a 1/3 ac pond to completely mix it. This complete mixing may make the deep water too warm for the trout during the hottest summers. Since the pond in in a valley it may not receive enough wind to cause water warming problems.
The first year you might want to reduce the total number of trout from 125 to around 80 until you learn the mid-summer conditions of the windmill operation.

Do you know if the redbelly dace are spawning in the pond or coming from the swamp?

I believe the red belly dace are spawning in the pond. Some do spawn in the water coming in from the swamp if we have a wet spring early summer. As far as I know there are only dace in the swamp up the hill from me.

FYI - I have two windmills on my place and I get A LOT of wind. Neither windmill has consistently kept a hole open in the ice this winter. Your conditions probably aren't as bad as mine though. If your place is in a bowl then I would think wind could be an issue. You may consider a solar aeration rig without batteries. They make them now where they will start pumping when the sun hits the solar panel.

IF (big if) you are dead set on the windmill, I highly recommend the american eagle. It puts out a TON of volume and at 10' deep it can handle your deepest water.


EDIT: I am no expert! All that is IMO.

What is the best way to calculate the rate of flow?

Find a way to create a drain at water level that can take everything your springs throw at it. Then just time a 5 gallon bucket fill rate. A 5 gallon bucket in 15 seconds is 20 gallons a minute and so on and so forth. Of course if the spring is coming in at ground level with some sort of water fall, you can just put the bucket under the fall.

We assume you mean spring flow rate and not windmill air flow rate. You may have to get creative to channel the water so it can be measured. Another way would be to measure the amount of water leaving the pond?.

Yeah sorry about that I was referring to the spring flow. Ok I will have to see about measuring the flow coming out of the pond as there are way to many places were it seeps in.

Thank you all for the info.

Yooper Mike,

Just a welcome.

I don't have much to add, especially in addition to Bill Cody's good comments.

But, I was just thinking, maybe you being a Yooper, you should instead try to grow one of those famous UP 40 Pound Crappies!

Suomi Ken

Lol yeah I hear you there. I'm not to sure about 40 lb crappie but we do grow some very nice brookies up here. How would crappie do in a small pond like mine?

"How would crappie do in a small pond like mine?" In many opinions: poorly. If you want a much better pond fish for your situation use pellet trained yellow perch that with good food (pellets) and low crowding can easily get to 13"-14". Imlay fish farm (ImlayMI) may have pellet raised perch. SMB will control overpopulated YP.

IMO I would try the trout first. If the trout die out you will be EASILY able to start over with other species and not have to worry about any interfering fish contamination such as crappie, BG, bass, etc.

Yeah I really have my heart set on trout!! I have several lakes within 10 minutes of the house that are full of LMB SMB BG YP and crappie. I also love to eat trout. How do they taste when you pellet feed them? I was really hoping to not have to feed them only because I want a more natural fish.

They wouldn't do well at all. Trout should do fine with the setup you have described, and especially if you can feed them in the summer.

Cody -- click on the link about the 40 lb. crappie. You may notice that the coloration and shape are a little odd.