Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Trout Pond Stocking

I'm a first time poster and have been reading and learning for a while. My guess is this information is already here somewhere so please point me to an existing thread if appropriate.

I have a newly excavated pond in NE Minnesota that is between 1/4 and 1/3 acre in size and about 14 feet deep. I'm pretty deep into ground water which runs at about a constant 53 degrees.

I'm planning to aereate the pond (at only about one CFM) and feed using a automated feeder. I'm hoping to stock rainbow trout in the spring and then fish out during the summer and fall. With some luck, I'm hoping some will winter over.

My question is how many fish do you all think is a reasonable number to stock. A local fish biologist says the pond will support 25 - 30 fish without feed or added air. The hatchery that I was planning to get fish from says it should handle 100-200 10" fish with some aeration and feeding.

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Birddog, I am not an expert but have had Rainbows for one full year now in my small excavated pond. I was originally told to wait a couple of years before I stocked anything. This allows for self colonization of insect, invertabrates, scuds etc that make up the majority of trout forage. Like most people here, I did not have the patience and stocked it immediately with 150, 5" rainbows.My pond is about 170ft x 50ft x 15ft deep when full. I fed them fairly regular through the summer and they grew to around 9-10" by iceup. I only kept a few and a Heron helped himself as well through the summer, but I did overwinter the remainder after 196 days of ice, no fish kill. This year I noticed the aquatic life has really taken off and I do expect better growth. Some of the things I learned: Winter aeration in a new pond may not be required for the first few years. Snow removal is a must. For summer I only aerated when air temps were lower than water temps, mostly at night to keep from warming the water too much. Unlike you, I have no inflow of water from anything other than surface runoff. Water temps maxed at 72f and I think aeration is what got them through that period. I would go with the hatchery recomendation and see how they progress. Every pond is different and sometimes you just have to give it a try and adjust as you go. There are many more seasoned members here that will chime in, Cecil grows huge trout year round in ponds smaller than yours. Search for posts by him and Bill Cody, lots to learn from them, many others as well. Welcome aboard. Wood.

bdog - Cecil is one of our knowledgable trout raisers. Hopefully he will help out with some information here. Use the Search feature at the top right of the page. Click on it and type in trout as a search word. Search under many topics because people post questions under all kinds of general forum headings.

As Wood said, I also think the biologist and hatchery had the numbers to stock fairly close. Since you are new at fish raising I would stock initially on the conservative side and use about 80- 100 trout if you feed them. As you will read some also stock minnows with the trout, but personally I think the fishing will be better if you do not stock minnows.

Others here have posted about having ground water enter their pond. You can read other posts on how they manage with that feature. Trout are a good choice if you have a cold ground water supply for the pond.

Come back and ask questions if you need more answers or ideas.

Thanks for the quick reply. The guy from the DNR gave me the same recommendation.... that is to wait for a year or so to allow vegetation etc to grow. I don't think either I or my kids will have the patience to wait. I want to make sure I didn't mislead you. I don't have water flowing through my pond. It is simply in an area with a low water table and the ground water is at about 53 degrees. It filled to 10 feet very quickly. The DNR guy said the effect of the cool ground water should provide a cooling effect for my pond. Without actual water flowing through do you think I will I get this effect?

Thanks again.

birddog, I see no reason to wait a year. You don't have to wait for plants and micro-organizations to "magically" appear. Put in the plants you want. Ask your local DNR biologists for a good lake (meaning no yuckies) to collect muck and water to seed your pond. Spread some hay over the bottom to make a matrix for bacteria to attach to (like in an aquarium).

Thanks for the encouragement. The DNR biologist (who by the way was very helpful) did concede that if I used a feeder, I shouldn't have to wait, but he would recommend waiting. Also, I thought I read somewhere that plants in a trout pond aren't necessarily that good of a thing to have. Do I really need/want plants and if so, what kind would be recommended for a small trout pond in the north country.

Plants are ok for a trout pond and play an important role in any aquatic ecosystem. That is until they get out of control and over run your pond. This may or may not happen in your situation.In smaller ponds it is not hard to control them anyway.I would not worry about introducing a bunch yourself, unless you want them.They will find you. Norm's idea would speed up the process.

bdog -- If you decide to wait to stock and let food organisms develop before adding trout, then go to forum home (above right) and move down to Creating The Food Chain. In that forum is the topic: Freshwater Shrimp. Choose it. Read it. Then back on page three they discuss amphipods or scuds also called Gammarius fasciatus. Some incorrectly call these freshwater shrimp. If you want really good trout food to develop then get some of these scuds and seed them into your pond this spring. They will multiply over summer and are great trout food.

Otherwise if you don't want to wait, do as mentioned above, stock trout now and feed them pellets. You will get fast growth this spring summer and fall. If you stock 6" to 8" trout this spring you should have 12"-14" or larger trout by late fall.

OK,
I now have my fisheries license and a DNR stocking permit. I've made the big decision and ordered 75 rainbows that will be delivered the week of 5/24. Thanks for the advice. Now I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. What would happen if I added a handful of Brown Trout for variety? Are BT just to aggressive to mix with Rainbows even in small numbers?

Birddog,

I would not see a problem with adding some brown trout. In fact variety is the spice of life. I have had brooks, browns, and rainbows in the same pond. The only disadvantage I would see with browns is they are more difficult to harvest. As long as your fish sizes are similar I would see no problems.

Browns will also tolerate more marginal water conditions if by some chance your pond gets warmer than you realized your browns are more likely to make it.

BD,

What size rainbows are you getting? Be sure to keep us posted on how well you fatten them up over the summer.

Russ

Russ,

It looks like I'll be getting mostly 8-10" fish with a few as large as 12". I wanted bigger fish so we wouldn't have to wait to start fishing. I am really interested to see how fast or slow they grow. I'll keep you posted.

Larry

Catching 8-10" trout is fun, especially for kids. Consider it good practice. Just use pliers to squish the barbs down on your hooks if you plan on releasing them with minimal harm.

Enjoy your fish!

Be prepared to lose some of them if you practice catch and release. Trout are not a good catch and release fish especially in a pond where oxygen levels and temps may not be as optimum as possible. If it was me I would wait until they reach to size you want to harvest them at or take a few out now and them.

If you feed your trout you can expect a 1 to 1 1/2 inch growth rate per month into the end of October. Trout grow quite rapidly compared to most warmwater gamefish if they are fed.

Update - Just an short update for those of you that might be curious. When my fish arrived in May they were a little smaller than I had hoped (6"-8") but they looked very heathly and started feeding within minutes of entering the pond.

I have been feeding them Purina Aquamax since they arrived. I initially fed once per day (evening) and about a month ago added a morning feeding, and a week ago added a third in the late morning. I'm trying to compensate for the loss of bugs due to cold temperatures.

The growth rate on these fish is really quite amazing. I caught a 17" fish last Saturday and my son caught 3, 15" fish the same day.

Cecil, on a post earlier this summer you were inquiring about 1 feeding vs 2 per day. It looks like my fish have significantly "fattened" up in the last month since I added an additional feeding. I can't give you any scientific data but I do think the additional feedings have had an impact.

I do feed only small amounts at each feeding to ensure all of it is quickly cleaned up and doesn't add too much waste. Perhaps more food once per day would have the same effect.

Anyway, I consider this first season a tremendous success and thanks to all who have posted so much great information on this site.

Birddog, that is terrific growth. Trout that size are very fun to catch, especially on the flyrod, they will have you into your backing next year for sure. How about the plants, I bet they found you. My pond's second year saw many plants/weeds. I pruned some, left lots for cover, shade, and because I like them. Your feeding will help fuel many more next year, but worth it I think.
Sounds like you are doing well and having fun with it, thanks for the update.

Birddog,

More than one feeding a day will indeed produce faster growth. And at the size you got your fish they could have been easily fed three times per day if they will come up in mid day. Most hatcheries feed larger fish twice per day in optimum temps.