Originally Posted By: wbuffetjr
Originally Posted By: Bill D.
I have been following this thread out of curiosity. If I have it right, to summarize, the lake has experienced winter kill in the past. You increased the depth by 4 to 5 feet by fixing the dam last summer. You now have 22 ft water in some areas. You said you were going to stock native Brook Trout last Septemeber. Did you and did they survive this past winter now that you have deeper water?


Bill,

I rebuilt the damn last summer (July 25th) but will not officially be full until this spring/summer after snow melts. Since the water was still going to be so low this past September when I was back out there I decided not to risk killing all those Brookies and wait till the summer to put any fish in and install aeration. When I was out there last (September 24th) the water had come up about 6-8". Haven't seen it since then.


FWIW IMHO you made a big change in water depth and area by fixing the dam. Unless you are in a big hurry, I would stock some trout when the lake is full and run thru a winter test to see how they do now, but I am definitely not a pond pro. I am just an old engineer that has learned it is often good to see the results of one major change before making another one. In my business, we call making a lot of big changes to fix a problem a "shotgun" approach. If the problem is solved, you live forever with the cost of all the changes, not the 1 or maybe 2 that actually got er dun! FWIW


Last edited by Bill D.; 04/13/15 09:23 PM. Reason: Clarification

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