Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose My theory was correct!

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in the top 10 worlds largest LMB more than half were from California, why? Because of 1 food source. The Rainbow Trout. Now i want to make a pond ecosystem that contains Trout but how would i in GA? it will be deep, like 20ft deep enough? and 10 acres like my other plan for trophy bass. but how would trout live in a pond?

You don't need them to live in your pond year round... In late fall, say Oct or Nov when waters have cooled into the upper 60's you can stock the rainbow trout. All winter long the bass feed on them and you can also have fun catching a few for the table during the colder months... In the spring, when water temps rise to lethal limits as the trout start to die the last few survivors get scarfed up by the bass. No need to even attempt to hold trout over year round.

...unless your name is Nate and have special aeration that makes it work anyway.

This technology I want to learn about...

As do I... but he won't share. hehe

That's not very nice... Holding trout over year round would be pretty cool. But without a high flow darn cold spring or living much farther north, it aint happening!

So what is the maximum temperature and minimum D.O. that Rainbow Trout need to thrive?

Thrive or survive?

The temp and DO are very much related from what my research indicates. Rainbows can survive much warmer waters where the DO is at or very near saturation. A rainbow will thrive in 66 degree water with a near saturation DO level. It will survive in 74 degree water at or near saturation. It will survive at 66 degree water with moderatate DO levels, say 8.0 or so... 74 degrees and moderate DO levels will kill them.

I can say brown trout are much hardier than rainbows. I lose my rainbow trout in the creek behind our hunting cabin nearly every year, whereas I have a few brown trout hold over almost every year.

Dwight,

You still think you can grow a 10 lb. bass in your pond in the tundra? Ain't gonna happen. Fogetaboutit!

Ha,thats what you think.Ive been shipping him lead impregnated fishfood.

I have a method I am working on to oxygenate the lower waters with low enough circulation to maintain a thermocline---Should be effective but won't be cheap.

Rainman, you might be a pretty darn popular fellow once you figure out how to do that.

Actually stocking rainbows in the fall of optimum forage size might get him bigger bass. 10 lbs I'm not sure, but it would be worth a try. It would be an interesting experiment over a period of several years.

I can see how it would be done but the only problem I have is not being able to surface feed the trout during the summer. On the other hand I know a guy in PA that said he had no trouble getting rainbows to come up in 80 F. water as long as they could quickly go back down. Can't verify that but...

One thing I've always wondered about is if one could pump in well water that has been aerated to a high saturation level on the bottom vs. the top like I do, and if the trout would concentrate around this. It would seem if the pond is not stratified it should not get warmed up, and it would be heavier than the upper warmer water and stay put. And a bottom pipe on the other end of the pond to keep anerobic water moving out?

Have your cake and eat it too (two story pond) without compromising the warmer water your warm water fish would need. And additionally have a comfort zone for coolwater fish?

Speaking of that Cecil... That is, rainbow trout feeding on the surface in 80 degree water. I was at our hunting cabin this weekend. The surface water temp was 81 degrees! I caught 3 rainbow trout and 4 brown trout in the top 2 feet of water. At 8 feet the water was 64 degrees... The trout would come up like lightening bolts, slam the bait and then dive. I also caught several others down deep. So I can personally attest that rainbows and brown will rise up and take bait(pellets) from the surface in 80 degree+ water...

As far as the having your cake and eat it too, I think it can be done... Perhaps an aeration system that can be placed just below the natural thermocline, mixing enough cold low DO water with warm higher DO water to raise the DO levels and lower the temp but not so much that it affects the balance? The trout can hold in a happy layer in the middle, like the do in larger lakes...

I wonder if fishkeeper is reading this?

Cj, first comment in thread was spot on. We stock quite a bit of trout every fall. Both for recreation and as food for bass. They get hammered throughout the season but as it warms then get a boost. In most of GA they make it into June, so there Nov-June. Cecil they routinely eat fish food on surface in 85 degree water here. They make it for awhile hanging at thermocline. Amazed in my ponds, lots of creek flow about a turnover every ½ day. The surface temp a month ago was 82 and not stratification of course and 2 trout still came up to feed, how??? Way above minimum temp for survival, did it last year as well with one that died in late July. I think one is still alive but not seen him in awhile.

I don't know if this is similar to what you were thinking, but here is a sketch I made of a system a professor told me about in college.




The sets of black lines are two large pipes, one inside the other. The arrows show water flow. Red arrows = lower oxygen water, Blue arrows = high oxygen water.

Seems like it would work. I'm sure the hypolimnetic water warms some as it is exposed to the air, but hopefully not too much. Also seems like there could be an issue possibly recirculating the same water.

I think it would take a relatively deep lake to have enough room to make it work. Gravel pits/quarries come to mind.

I don't think feeding would be that big of an issue as far as survival. Bass eat very little for a few months out of the year in the North, but still grow. So maybe the trout don't eat much while the lake is stratified, but can put on the feed bag later. Or there is some sort of cold water bait fish out there that could be used.

Chris, I am thinking of finding 1 or 2 used, large capacity oxygen generators/concentrators that can create at least 1 CFM of pure oxygen. Some generators include high pressure pumps that can refill oxygen cylinders, otherwise I would use a small pump to create at least 50 psi. By hooking these up to some ultra fine ceramic diffusers to produce <2 micron bubbles that are so small there is virtually no lift and the oxygen will be almost immediately absorbed directly into the water.

I observed this when I adjusted the Oxygen flow meters on my Live haul truck and the thought instantly popped into my head. I could see a rather large "cloud" of oxygen and it was being absorbed into the water before lifting a single foot. FWIW there was over 100 pounds of fish in the 150 gallon tank and all suvived more than 72 hours like that.

I've not put much more thought and little research into this yet, so start poking holes into the theory. I want royalties if the idea is stolen now!!!

Sounds interesting... The question is, how expensive???

If you have to ask..............well, I can't afford it either!


One generator that produces 30 lpm of 99% pure O2 that might work well is around 5K....plus a suitable shelter. Definately would be for the individual that just wants what he wants regardless of price!

Yeah, that is what I figured...

In a larger pond say 5 acres or so, I wonder if you suspended a diffuser near the thermocline, and ran it if that would help increase DO and lower temps in the upper water level... But, not remove too much off the lower colder water too fast to destroy the thermocline and eventually lose out on the cold water refuge for the trout.

I like csteffans idea. You would warm the water some but with some minor engineering, I see no reason it wouldn't work. The problems I see at first that could be fairly easily overcome would be to isolate the flow of water at the surface to prevent it from mixing with surface water yet provide an area large enough to release CO2 along with other toxic gasses and absorb enough oxygen. That could be done with maybe an 8' diameter by 1' high bouyant tank. To allow for flucuating water levels, the inflow tubing could be semi-flexible and several downflow pipes that will suspend a few feet from the bottom.

Adding a small agitator to the tank would make it even more effective and remove many dissolved gasses more efficiantly.


I'd draw a design, but we get plenty of laughs already!