Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Trout diet in muddy water

I have a small spring fed pond, had it dug out last fall. Last week I added a little over 40 brook trout to the pond. The trout were anywhere from 3" - 4" long. I bought some pellets with them because that's what the hatchery was feeding them. There is still a fair bit of suspended sediment from the dig, visibility is about 1.5 ft. I've seen the odd fish rise for an insect but they don't seem interested in the fish food, thought they would gobble it up. Has anyone else had a similar experience with trout having an immediate change in diet? I suspect that it's the dirty water that is the source of this change, but I just don't know for sure? Curious if anyone else has experienced this?

Redspruce that low visibility could be making the brookies wary but do you have alot of minnows and bugs in the pond, when I put hatchery trout into my pond they feed mostly on the large amount of shiners and bugs and very little on the pellets.
Another possibility is water temperature, they start slowing down when water temps reach the mid to upper 60's F.

There are lots of bugs in the pond, and tad poles. The water temp isn't close to 60 yet. I think the low visibility has a lot to do with it. It might be that they are down near the bottom of the pond and can't see the food when it lands? Anyway none of them have floated belly up yet...so far so good.

I had/(still have?) trout in my pond over the winter. They voraciously ate pellets. However, when the water muddied up, they wouldn't come up. Or, if it was super windy they wouldn't come up. I figured they were very much sight feeding and when something interfered with that they didn't notice the feed. I say just give it a bit - and keep trying small amounts of food as the pond clears (don;t put a lot of food out that isn't eaten). I also found it useful to throw the food way up into the air when feeding to make as loud a pellet splash as possible. Good luck, pond trout are a blast.