Why is it best to get hatchery bought trout off of pellets? In a private lake setting such is this case, pellets are the easiest way to grow trout to good sizes and raises the number of trout one can have in their lake...
So you are saying 90% of a 12" rainbow trout's diet in a 7 acre lake would be other fish? Even with Utah chubs being present I would be very surprised if that was the case. Even for splake or tiger trout, I would be shocked if 90% of their diet was fish.
Rainbow trout feed heavily on the larval forms of insects, such as caddis, Chironomids, stone flies among others... Utah chubs also feed on these limited food sources. You have to consider the fact that it's going to take 5 pounds of insect larvae to make 1 pound of Utah chub. So why waste 5 pounds of insect larvae on making 1 pound of Utah chub when you can simply skip the Utah chub and let those 5 pounds of insect larvae go directly to making more trout biomass. Rainbow trout do not need forage fish... That is my point. By adding Utah chubs, you are taking away from the total biomass in rainbow trout...
Now splake and tiger trout may have more needs for forage fish, but even they can do just fine feeding on invertebreates, larval insects included along with crayfish and shrimps.
