Thanks Sunil, Theo and Bruce,
I agree and understand the logic of placing an aerator in the shallows for the winter. Fortunately we have on the back side of the pond an area that is 4-5 feet deep that was not able to be excavated this past summer where we can place an aerator. The other areas of the pond are 12-15 feet.
In the summer though, from what I have gleaned from Cecil's posts and others in this forum, placing an aerator in the deep end is necessary yet should be run sparingly ie at night when cool and during the day if the air temp is say cooler than 65 degrees. We had a learning experience 2 years ago when we ran two aerators 24/7 during June and it mixed and warmed the water enough where the water temp reached 70 F and it killed ALL the trout (200). Ouch.
Let me summarize what our action plan will be this spring and summer given all of the valued info received:
1.) Make the pond deeper (complete, summer of 2005) was 4-7 feet deep before now 1/2 is roughly 4-7 feet and the other 1/2 is 12-15 feet.
2.) Do not run the aerators 24x7 in the summer
3.) In the summer run the aerators in the deep end when cool at night and during the day only when the air temp is cool.
4.) Do not overfeed. We have a Sweeney auto pellet feeder.
5.) In the winter, only turn on the shallow side aerator in 4-5' of water. Is there a benefit of running an aerator in the deep end for brief periods to get some oxygen in the deep depleted areas? I can do this with a control system.
5.) Practice primarily "catch and take" with careful limited catch and release yet monitor the kill population and use barbless hooks.
6.) Do not introduce additional plants. They will eventually migrate from the existing side areas that were not dredged.
7.) we will stock the pond with 200 10-12" Rainbows in late April (The date the nearby trout farms suggested and will be ready to deliver. Two suppliers quoted the same price of $190/100 in the 10-12" size along with transportation costs.
Any other key areas we may have missed?
