Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Assorted minnows in Trout stocked pond

Hello All.
I have some questions and do not know all fish abbrevitions by any means So please bare with me.
I had posted on another thread about my muddy pond. It is not cleared up totally but I happy with that being as we have Osprey and herons who would enjoy some RT if they could see them. Anyways it is clearing slowly with the air diffusor placed.
This pond has always had minnows in it, thanks to the previous owners. There are at the very least 4 different types. Some are less than an inch and others are over 4inches long. Totally different type, have caught these in the minnow traps.
My rainbow are not heavy eaters as of yet but lastnight they seemed to enjoy some pelleted feed. We have been basically feeding the minnows up to this point. I am wondering if they are eating the copious amounts of minnows and are not really interested in the pelleted feed? Not that I would mind, just makes my feed last longer and they should grow faster too should they not? Has anyone had this kind of experience they would like to share? Any info would be fabulous thank you!

I understand Rainbow Trout ("RT") usually feed trained pretty well. However, fish in a pond where feeding has not occurred can take some time to get into polishing off pellets. In addition, fish with a lot of natural food available can take a lot longer to feed really well than hungry fish do. For instance, my BG took a couple of years to start feeding well - they had to spawn first and increase their numbers to the point where at least some of them were hungry and hence curious enough to try pellets.

Once some pellet eating fish are present, others usually pickup the idea fairly fast from the "teachers."

Fish that have plenty of natural forage AND take pellets well should grow the fastest (the Condello Affect). Some questions:

1. What are you feeding?

2. How many RT do you have (assuming they do not reproduce in your pond so you have a better chance of knowing?

3. How big is the pond?

If the number of RT/acre is low, that would explain the plentiful natural minnows and the relative lack of interest in pellets.

Rainbow trout are less piscivorous(fish eating) than brook and particularly brown trout. When they get larger, they do add more fish to their diet. Rainbow trout, particularly those under 12" tend to feed heavily on invertebrates, like midge larvae, other insect larvae, scuds and insect hatches. When I clean my rainbow trout I rarely find fish in their stomach but the browns many times have fish in theirs.

Most ponds I have worked on that have trout even in heavy numbers will still have healthy populations of fathead minnows. Some sources even recommend not stocking any forage minnows as they directly compete with trout for food sources.

Rainbow trout of all the trout species are the first to take pellets. It may just take time for your trout to realize that pellets are food. If you bought your trout from a hatchery, they in all likelihood were at some point pellet fed. If they have been in the pond for a while and not pellet fed, they may take a while to relearn to pellet feed...

If you can, take some pictures of these minnow species, I am curious what species you have in your pond...

Dianne, I have a similar situation in my trout pond, when my pond was a year old it had GSH & PS's in it, I stocked RT & BKT and they fed heavily on the trout food, the second year the new trout I stocked did not feed as heavily, this year I stocked RT & BRNT and they hardly touch the food at all. A few minutes after I released them I threw in some pellets and they ate them immediately ,but by the next day they weren't interested, but they are constantly hitting bugs at the surface.
I can only attribute this to the increased population of minnows, tadpoles, and insects each year as this is only the 4th spring.
Your trout are probably doing the same thing by taking advantage of the natural food available, if they continue to grow at about an inch a month your in good shape.

How old is your pond and what size trout did you stock?

P.S. This year I have a huge amount of Dragon fly Nymphs crawling onto Cattails and vegetation, the the trout probably love these.

AP, no doubt your trout are loving all those bugs and nymphs... Keep us updated on their growth rates.

Maybe this long hard winter has caused a bigger explosion of insects, the Black flies will carry you away, they also eat tourists.

Thank you all for your responses! I am pleased to announce that the RT are eating their pellets and are quite vigorous about it. As for the types of minnows, The water is not clear enought to take pictures of them. I have caught some last year and the variety is astounding. they range from too small to catch in the trap to 5 inches long. I am pretty certain one is a "firebelly", a freind who caught some last year said that is what they were. The others I would have to catch in the minnow trap. I have to say after this lenght of time that the minnow population is less, meaning less of the treat sized ones for the 75 8-10 inch trout we stocked. I think that the population of the big ones with continue to live as they always have.
Our pond is just under and acre of surface and is varying between 13-7 ft deep. We Find that the trout are hanging out in all sorts of depths, not just the deep holes. If we evern manage to catch a trout via worm and barbless, I will take a picture and post it for you all. This is what we are waiting on now. Hard pressed we will be as long as the minnow populations is so abundant.
Thank you again!

The "firebelly" is probably a local name for the northern redbelly dace. A rather common northern species found in ponds. I would be curious what other species you have... Lake chubs are also rather common and could be a species you have as well as the old stand by, the golden shiner and fathead minnow.