Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New Member; awesome site!

Hi Folks.
Alot of fanitical pondowners/fishkeepers here..this is my type of site!

I live in Saskatchewan and had a half acre dugout ranging from 14 to 20 feet deep built in October 2009. It was located in a slough bottom that typically would have about 2 feet of water in it after the spring melt and be dry by mid July.
Thanks to 2 wet years in a row there is now about 7 feet of water on top of the dugout and covering an area of 6 acres.

I stocked 600 rainbow trout in it last spring which I am wanting to overwinter.

I have been attempting to aerate the pond but have run into some difficulty. I erected a fence originally about 30-35 feet in diameter above the aerator to keep our dogs away from open water but have had to expand the size of the fence twice already due to a larger than anticipated open area. I have the airstation in 28 feet of water and even using the minumum airflow(which is at 10 psi)the bubbles create enough of a boil to clear a big area of ice. This winter's warm temps. and ice half the normal thickness don't help either!

If the current 50 foot diameter fence doesn't safetly retain the open water/thin ice I might have to turn the system off for the winter.

Intermittent use has been resulting in a large area of thin unsafe ice and no open water for the exchange of oxygen.

Sorry for the long winded post, any advice would be appreciated!

Can you move the diffuser nearer shore, into much shallower water? That would increase the safety and accomplish the mission of aerating enough of your pond to keep your fish alive. Plus, aerating water that's three feet deep allows nature's forces to keep your bottom water several degrees warmer, since water is its most dense at 39 degrees F. Depending how close you bring the diffuser to the edge, that should determine the size of the hole you have in the ice.

Bob:

That's exactly what I did. In 2008 I almost lost my 2 dogs because they jumped in after a couple of geese in the open water. A week previous, they did the same thing, but it was a bit warmer, they caught the geese and were able to climb out of the water by themselves. When the temps dropped below 0 F, they couldn't. Now, the diffuser is placed so it will keep a hole thawed to within 2' to 3' of the shore.

It's also in front of the feeder so I can use the automatic feeder to feed the trout all winter long.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'd have to move the diffuser about 150 feet from where it is to get it beside the nearest shore. This would be safest but this stretch is maximum 6-7 feet deep...whereas dugout is 20 feet deeper than this.

Part of one of the spoil piles from the dugout isn't submerged and about 30 feet from the dugout. This might be a better bet? I wonder if a diffuser placed at a depth of 8-10 feet would circulate much O2 to the depths of my dugout 30 feet away?

What if I left the diffuser where it is and just raised it 10 or 15 feet off bottom? This way the fencing could stay where it is and in theory the amount of open water reduced.

Next year I will definitely set up closer to shore.

What do you guys think about leaving diffuser and fence for this winter and putting the aeration on a timer to run 1/2 or 2/3rd time depending on temperature. So the hole will freeze and open up to current size but not get bigger. The clear ice would still be good for dO2.

Moving diffuser by the spoil pile/ island would be my next choice if anything falls in it would be able to get out there easy and it would circulate enough 02.

Experts say you shouldn't have the diffuser in the deepest part of your pond to protect your warmest water like Bob Lusk mentioned above

Actually, having the aeration system running over winter is not to literally aerate the deep water. It's to expose surface water to air and to allow sunlight penetration to minimize the risk of plant respiration totally depleting oxygen levels, thus trying to prevent winterkill.

I wouldn't worry about supercooling the water if the main fishes are trout. They are well adapted to cold and supercool water.

I think I'll take your advice and move my diffuser to shallower water next to the dugout. If the dogs get past my fence and fall into the water at least they will have the top of the spoil pile to climb up on.

Would you expect the trout to be very active under the ice and any thoughts on what water depths they would prefer in a situation such as mine? So far I have been unable to track them down in my 6 acre pond whereas the ones I stocked in a .10 acre pond have been relatively easy to catch.

I had trout in the pond 2 years ago, and while they still came up to the top for the floating food, I caught them under the ice in the deepest part of the pond. I think they were cruising right off of the bottom looking for invertebrates. I'd catch them on a small ice jig tipped with a spike or mousie by bouncing the jig on the bottom occasionally, and never raising it more than 6" off of the bottom.

Still catching them in the pond this year on Little Cleo's. (casting for them)

Hi,

my name is Adriel from Ottawa.I'm newbie here.One of my friend tell me about this site.I seen some interesting threads and posts so I thought I would sign up.I'm looking forward to have a great conversation or exchanging ideas with you guys.

Adriel, nice to have you. We'd like to get to know you better. Could you post your own thread, introducing yourself? Tell us if you have a pond or what plans you have for a property and pond. And who's your friend that referred you? We'd like to know who to thank for spreading the word.

Thanks for the advice Essup, I'll give some jigs a try.