I found the Trout belly-up the other day. I was able to maintain decent temps by running my well 16hrs a week until we had a really hot week over the 4th and I was out of town to do anything about it. The heat must have done it in since the trout was big and looked healthy, aside from being dead. The trout measured 16" which means it continued the 1 inch a month growth rate I noticed in my indoor flow through setup.

The Perch and the Trout went in at the end of March and I put a gallon of FH in shortly after. Since then I haven't seen any YP but there have been plenty of minnows. I am not sure if they are 1.5" FH or yoy Perch. What do YOY Perch look like?

Thanks for the advice, I will plan on stocking FH every so often and waiting until next fall for the SMB. I am eager to get the bass in there, but if the ecosystem will be better off without them I will hold off. I almost brought a couple wild SMB to the pond but decided against it, now I am glad I waited.

Pat32rf/cf, the pond is 1/10 acre and is (at the time of excavating) 25' in the deepest spot with 2/3 of the pond at least 15' deep. I really would like both SMB and Trout in the pond, although, I would be happy with only a couple of either. I want the SMB to keep the perch in check and for catch and release fishing.

Ewest, I read Bill's articles in PB and even made a cage. I started the perch in there, but one night a corner of the cage sank and the perch escaped! I adjusted the design so it wont happen again (hopefully) but now I don't have any fish to put in the cage. I guess I will have to wait for the SMB.