Hello pro's & part timers.

Thank you all for making this forum such an great place to gather information & hapilly waste away a boring afternoon.

My pond is about 2 acres, 10 - 12 feet maximum depth. Brook trout spawn naturally on the gravelly sections where water percolates up from the ground. From what I understand these brookies have been self sustaining for 12 years or more (we only bought the place last year). Last fall I added 250 all female 4" rainbows for variety. Aside from the brookies and the rainbows there are no other species of fish present. We do not feed the fish at all however we do have amazing insect hatches that are great fun to watch.

I only started keeping a fishing record in August last year most fish caught were 8" (9/10) the biggest I caught was 10.5" & deep chested.

My questions are:

1 - What would indicate overcrowding?

2 - How should I manage/harvest to attain bigger average sizes overall?

3 - Can a 8" brookie (in september) be the previous years spawn? I never saw anything between 4" and 7" last year. I'm thinking the fish that were 3 - 4" in the fall were born that spring . Is this right?

4 - If the previous assumptions are right, then as I only caught 3-4 fish better than 9.5" should I assume overcrowding? How would I remedy this if it's the case?

Thank you all for your thoughts and insights on this. It's really appreciated.

Chris H.

Chris H