Recently purchased a freeze dryer for the family. Currently freeze drying veggies, fruit, scrambled eggs, diced ham, mushrooms etc. For those of you who are not familiar, freeze drying differs from dehydrating in that freeze dried food is essentially unchanged from the process; rehydrate 20 years later and you have a nearly identical piece of food - not shriveled and changed like dehydrated food. Here is a vis of someone freeze drying fish:
I have a 2 year old one acre pond in Ohio that is stocked with BG, RES, 70 LMB, 30 HSB and 70 CC. We routinely eat all of the fish types in the pond and plan to replace HSB and CC as they are consumed.
With the freeze dryer we have the ability to harvest, store and consume a larger numbers of fish. Essentially move th pond to more of a aquaculture state.
Here’s the question, how would you change stocking to keep a good fishery (good sizes LMB etc.) and increase the production of table fish?
I believe (non-expert opinion) that a CC aquaculture pond with supplemental feeding is the most efficient based on fish meat produced per acre. That might be the more utilitarian, but "less fun" option.
[Perhaps Tilapia have surpassed that rate, but that is only for ponds warmer than your location.]
I think the first step might be to determine if your CC are reproducing. Have you been catching any CC that are clearly not your stockers? This spring and summer of Year 3 would probably provide a good test of that prospect.
Whether or not the CC are reproducing in your pond might change your long range fish stocking and management plans.
P.S. Thanks for the freeze dryer info. My wife likes cooking in large batches, but most of our kids have now flown the nest. The freeze dryer might be a good option to save and eat tasty leftovers.
I do not believe the cats will reproduce in my pondno holes, gaps, pipes, tiles, tiles etc. I am thinking that the catfish density is the key to this issue.
