Larry --
Sorry I'm late in replying-- just got busy the past few days.
The spring is usually adequate. Its flow varies seasonally. At its greatest flow it runs about 75 gallons per minute. Unfortunately, we're in another drought. The flow this afternoon was probably less than 10 gallons per minute. The only saving factor this summer has been cool nighttime temperatures.
I stocked trout first in November of 2002. I moved here in June of that year and spent the whole summer getting an education in controlling chara (with a lot of remedial lessons since then). The previous owner had stocked largemouth bass, hybrid sunfish, channel catfish and 8 grass carp (all in a 1/4 acre pond, mind you).
Well, of those species, only the hybrid sunfish were thriving. The bass were runts (called 'em my "bonsai bass"), the channel catfish were as skinny as eels and the grass carp were long past their usefulness at chara control (that ends when the grass carp hit about 20" -- then they switch to more substantial materials).
I really should have done a complete take-down of the existing stock. Instead, I started a feeding program for the catfish -- which succeeded very well. Even the hybrid sunfish kind of got with the feeding regimen.
By late summer of 2002, I had the chara "under control" (ha!) and had installed an aeration system. By November the pond was looking really good -- crystal clear and very ready for trout. So, I put in 125 rainbows -- almost all 10". My goal at the outset was to at least have a winter/spring seasonal rainbow fishery for friends and family --- with the remote hope that maybe, just maybe, a few might make it through the summer.
Well, the trout didn't die in the summer of 2003 -- but I didn't know that at the time. I had asked a state biologist I know if he wanted or needed the big grass carp. He did and then came in mid-September '03 (right before Hurricane Isabel rearranged some local streams), and did some electro-shocking. To make a long story short, the grass carp gave his electrodes the slip -- but he said: "Hey, you have some really nice trout in here." What was especially neat was the dozen each browns and brook trout I had stocked in March had also made it through the summer (a drought summer at that). I've been managing primarily for trout ever since.
I put goldens in from time to time as a novelty. Children and grandkids of my friends really get a kick out of them. I don't think I've noticed any particular growth advantage over the rainbows I stock. I know now why an old hatchery worker I knew once referred to goldens as "tracer rounds" -- they're easy to spot and usually a good indicator where most of the rest of the trout are.
Regarding cages, that was part of my shopping errand at the local Lowe's today. I was looking for materials to build a small cage. They had the 3/4" PVC piping in stock; but unfortunately they were out of the three-opening corner pieces that are needed. But, yes, I hope to raise about 40 to 50 brook trout up to at least a 10" size before letting them out into the general population of the pond. I discovered last winter that seven and eight pound channel catfish remain winter active -- or at least hungry -- when small brook trout are about! -- Mike
