Mason,
Woops, I'm late again.
Good question about trout density in pond.
Nothing very scientific here for trout stocking rates. You will probably want to follow Cecils advice as he follows a better management plan than I do.
I guess I have always figured about 150 fish per surface acre in a low to medium managed pond. We do supplement our 3.2 acre trout pond with aquamax feed from one feeder. Yes, fish (rainbows) go crazy under the feeder. I am pretty sure very few if any browns visit the feeder and only a percentage of the rainbows.
I do watch WR ratios fairly closely and if fish performance drops off, we harvest a few more fish. Browns will definitely throw a wrinkle in this theory unless Cecil pays me a visit and shows me how to catch these phantom fish.
Cecil, will the panty hose pellets technique work on fish that have not seen or visited the pellet feeder?
I would like to catch many of the browns out if possible?
On a side note: We also stock significant numbers of FH minnows in this pond from our dedicated minnow pond. There seams to be large numbers of varying age class minnows in the shallows. I believe this also tells me that maybe our stock density is about right for the rainbows or maybe even a little low.
I would not recommend this procedure if you have to buy minnows.
Kind of like Cecil, I am “pushing” a few of the rainbows “hogs” very hard on feed! Everyone likes to see BIG fish…….right?
If our trout population, density, WR’s gets too “out of whac” it is easy to fix. Our trout do no spawn, and in the worse case scenario the pond has a drain plug.
Probably not much help from me.
Ed
