Your ice should be thick during winter so after snow falls I would do some snow plowing to remove the snow in strips to let light into the pond. Ice is usually clear enough to let sunlight into the pond if you can get some snow off the ice. Its has worked well to maintain good DO for other Canadian pond owners with trout.
When I calculate the average width of the 4 ac pond and 1/2 mile long (43560x4ac = 174240sqft / 2640ft long) it comes to about 66ft wide. If you can remove strip of snow 10ft wide the length of the pond after snow falls when snow gets 4"+ deep that should provide enough light penetration and oxygen production to keep fish alive all winter.
Actually, I kind of assumed that the pond was 4 acres, but turns out according to Google Maps, it is around 12-14 acres in size. Not sure if that changes anything.
Definitely sounds like a good idea though.
Right now in order to install proper aeration, I would have to run power, and that is going to be a longer-term task. I believe I can get around 300 6-8" trout that I will put in and try to see how everything works out. In spring I will know more.
The other thing is with 14 acres pond surface size, obviously I need quite a bit of aeration. Most units are made for 3-4 acres at most, so I would need to double up.
Also, should I just keep the updates here or start a new thread? Maybe this one could be moved to somewhere I can get more traffic? Thanks!
