Let me throw out this idea and see what you all think. One of the great aspects of this site is the ability to learn from so many people and to learn without making all the mistakes a newbie like me would be prone to make.
As the "dream" pushes forward, one thing I have learned from my Pond Boss magazine is plans change and there are many options available on how to run your pond.
Originally I was looking at a .5 acre catfish pond which would sit above the main pond of WE, SMB and YP. As I read more and more about pond capacities and catfish, I am thinking that .5 acre is going to support more fish than I will eat. In my warped mind, to have too many fish in a body of water that are not being eaten is to under utilize that body of water. If you have read the "Catfish and what" thread, we explored other options for the .5 acre and other fish to complement the catfish but none were forth coming. HSB, RE are not allowed in WI. I am avoiding BG, LMB and others to avoid any fish moving from above to the lower main pond and upsetting the balance of the lower pond.
After re-reading Cecil's article and his several ponds set up at 1/10th acre BOW, Eric West's work using blocking nets to create hatchery options and and the articles in the magazine on mini-ponds, I was wondering if I could split the .5 acre pond with a blocking net into two parts and have catfish in one side and rainbow trout in the other.
1. The side with trout would be dug deeper, 10-12 feet with narrow sides to help with water heating up
Is this typically deep enough for trout
Deepness doesn't automatically make a pond fit for trout. We have natural lakes in my area that are 60 to 70 feet deep and only have enough oxygen in the top 20 feet as soon as late June. Sure, that deeper water can stay cool enough for trout after the pond stratifies, but you need a minimum of 5 ppm until the pond turns over in fall. Most ponds start to get depleted oxygen in their hypoliminion at your latitude. There are exceptions as in some very deep gravel pits with low fertility substrata however. But usually these pits are quite deep at at least 30 or 40 feet deep and have a low fertility.
One alternative is hypolimnetic aeration where oxygen is injected into the hypolimnion or diffuser aeration is so minimal it won't break up the stratification.
2. I have a well that could pump water as Cecil does for 4 months of the year to keep water cool.
But keep in mind my I was pumping 45 gpms 24 /7 . That's 64,800 gallons a day. To keep a .5 acre pond cool enough you might have to pump at least 5 X that much or 225 gallons a day which comes out to 324,000 gallons a day.
3. A Vertex aerator will be installed
if this split is possible should the aerator be on the catfish side or trout side?
If you're talking about a diffuser that breaks up the thermocline, if you're not pumping enough water (as in above) you will probably warm your water up too much for the trout. My .5 acre pond that uses diffusion to break up the thermocline warms up to the upper 70's in the summer from top to bottom.
4. I will have a feeder installed to feed fish.
dumb question - would I or should I have a separate feeder and use separate types of food or is trout and catfish food close enough for my small limited operations?
High protein for the trout - at least 41 percent. But I would simplify by using the high protein for both.
5. Trout and Catfish will be stocked at low densities.
Question - is this good 50-100 fish to be stocked?
What size?
6. I will have several forage ponds producing FH, Golden shiners, Blunt-nose (I hope). These forage fish will help supplement the feeding. I will leave the Golden shiners out of the .5 pond.
Trout will go after the fatheads and shiners if they are not too big.
question- Goldens are two quick for catfish and can grow too large or at least that is what I have read and understood. Does that apply to Trout also?
The trout can catch the shiners, however if you are also feeding the trout pellets they will predominately feed on the pellets.
Finally, I am thinking about the blocking net for the following reasons:
- the .5 acre pond will be excavated as part of the barrow area
- To have two separate ponds, I would have to build a dividing wall between them
- I was hoping in this crazy plan to share aerator, feeder, food, drain pipe, overflow pipe between the two .25 acre ponds (save a little money)
- If the plan eventually proved to be stupid and not maintainable, I could just pull out the blocking net and go back to having a .5 acre catfish pond.
I tried a blocking net once to separate browns and brooks in the 1/10th acre pond. It was a failure and a waste of time and money.
There it is-- any feedback or threads helping in the planing, decision process is appreciated.
