Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Hello all, I have a new pond and it's getting time

Good day to you all, my name is Tim and I have just had a new pond dug. My pond is about .11 acres at the surface, is 10 to 12 foot deep throughout most of it, close to shore the pond does taper to 3 to 1 slop but I'm talking 5ft from shore.

A few more things;
- Pond is not quite a water table pond, more of a hybrid. The water table is about 6 feet down.
- There is no dam, we dug it.
- The pond was only completed about a week ago and I'm about 3 feet from full fill.
- The pond is clay throughout but, like I said, about 6 feet down the water does come in from the ground water.
- I am currently filling the pond with my well at 15 GPM.
- The pond has a great water shed so when the rain comes I about quadruple the fallen amount of rain. If it's a fast rain, I can pick up up to 7 times the fallen amount.
- I live in south central Michigan and it's about 95 as a high in the summer and about 0 as the low in the winter.
- I plan on aerating the pond.

This all said, here's my fantasy, I want trout! I love to trout fish, it's what I do.

1. Does anyone here think I have a chance of having trout, if so what species, without adding water to the pond given that the water maintains its depth in the summer?

2. If I can have trout, will I be stuck with only Browns given that I don't want to add cooling water?

3. Where would be a good place to purchase my trout?

4. Do you all have any recommended auto fish feeders?

5. What brand food should I use?

6. What time of the year should I stock?

7. Can I summer the fish?

8. Can I winter the fish?

9. How often should I feed? How much?



I'm open to ideas, I see quite a few folks here who seem to really have a handle on this trout thing in ponds my exact size.

If I have to I'll go with lame warm water fish but I'll be crushed.

Welcome to PB. I don't know squat about trout but others that do will certainly be here soon. I don't want to be negative but you should prepare yourself to cope with a ground water pond. If water can get in through the dirt it CAN get out. With your underground source being 6' down, consider the pressure of 6' of water pushing against your source. I'm no expert and hope I'm 180 degrees off. With such great run off gathering you may be just fine. If you don't get the almighty Moby Trout, don't despair. SMB, HSB, YP and RE make for a great fishin hole. Good luck and keep us updated. Also get lots of different types of minnows and/or shiners in asap no matter what fish you end up with.

I know little about trout but those who can address your questions will be along shortly.
I do have an observation though in that rainbow trout seem to be sensitive to being caught. One of my friends has a place on Colorado's White River. He had the pond stocked with trophy rainbow trout, and, on a visit there, gave us permission for catch and release fishing. We caught two and released both. In the crystal clear water, both of those huge beautiful trout sank to the bottom and died. Of course, that ended the fishing, but I have been bothered by it since, and still don't know if there was anything we could have done to avoid the deaths of those fish.

All trout seem to be sensitive to being caught, they are the canary of the river so to speak. On my pond being partial ground water table, I should have also added that it is being fed by my geothermal heating/cooling discharge water. When it's really really hot, my geo runs a bunch and puts out about 7GPM. This seems to be enough to keep the water table stable thus far, of course, that could change.

You might not be able to keep trout year round. Just be aware of that going in. There are some years you might get a few to make it over the summer, if its milder weather. That's what happened with some of mine this year. You can stock FHM in early summer, let them spawn like crazy. Stock trout early October, and have a blast till springtime. Then start the cycle all over again.

It seems like catching them can be hard on them. I noticed that warmer the water gets, the less likely they bounce back. Winter time was no problem. fiestier then too .

--Jim

In the first couple years because the pond is new, you will have a higher likelihood of holding trout over the summer. However, I wouldn't put the odds as very likely. If you are willing to fork out the money and have a well near by, you could pump 50-100 GPM into the pond and have a year round trout pond.

Trout needs high DO and temps less than 68 to thrive. A few hardier fish may be able to handle temps into the mid 70's if the DO levels stay high with aeration. Tweaking aeration via a thermostat and only aerating at night may help as well.

You can always try to trout keeping in mind they most likely will die.

Thank you kind Sirs for your words of wisdom.

I fully intend on getting the O2 to perfect levels, I would think that would be the easy part.

I don't plan on trying to catch any trout until year 3, if they could make it that long. I've fished many many many MDNR stocked rainbow and brookie lakes, enough to know that when you release the fish it can be iffy. Heck, it can be iffy in the rivers I've fished too.

What I'm really wanting as my ultimate goal is to get the darn fish to 3 years so that they become large, real large.

On the O2 level, what particular pump setup would you all recommend that will get me the DO optimal for trout? I would want to spend the money needed so that the system would be as "automatic" as possible. I've read about the heavy sinking airlines, blah blah blah but have really no idea what is hoyle.

My current run from a power source is about 200'. I would guess I could trench down hill to the pond, bury the airline, place some sort of aeration stone in the pond? Then put the pump on a timer set to go off during dusk to dawn. This may require a pump setup that puts out more DO in the time it is pumping to make up for the evening hours that it is not?


Oh, on putting down a well, that one is out. I like trout but I'm not going to spend that kind of money on them. That kind of cash will pay for a lot of trips to catch naturals.

I wouldn't be concerned about waiting until year 3 to catch them. There's some hatcheries in Michigan that typically sells 1# and 2# trout, but there's a few times when they have 10# ones for sale.....

You can grow rainbows over 10 pounds in just a couple years if stocked around 1 pound in size. Your biggest issue will be keeping the water cool enough.

Now I have to find those hatcheries and a proper compressor system. I have to take that air about 200 ft.

PM sent about the trout hatchery.

A trout just under a pound(11") can become 3 pounds in 7 months. I have pics to prove it. Esshup has bigger/better results than me. As with any fish stocking scenario, its all about having enough of the right forage.

7) that's iffy, probably not

8)Absolutley

9)I did several times per day. Very little each time but frequently. However approaching warmer days with temps rising, it went to once in the mornings.

Thank you all so much, you are wonderful gentleman. I was looking at a post where esshup has his packed column and the guy from Ontario made one as well. It appears that when temperature reading were done the water actually cooled 7 degrees through the column, that's a lot of degrees! Then you have the degasssing and DO affect on the water, it's a win win.

So, drawing water from the bottom of my pond I can cool it, degass it, add DO to it. I could probably make this stacked column in a way that disguises what it is and maybe improve the aesthetics because my pond is visible by my front road. Need a good pump to suck the water from the bottom and maybe not need a compressor.

Not me! I didn't build a packed column yet. You might have been looking at the one that Cecil built.

But, you are getting the right idea! Hang on tight, the learning curve is STEEP!

Okay, I've been studying and studying and studying. I've put this decision off for 90 days and finally made the leap today on aeration. I'm going with;
- a compressor mounted in my pole barn about 250 feet away from my pond.
- Compressor puts out about 1.5cfm's.
- I'm then pumping air into the 12 foot section of the pond for two weeks solid.
- After two weeks, putting in 60 12" rainbows and moving the aerator to 6 feet deep for the winter.
- After winter, moving the aerator to about 4 to 5 foot deep.
- I may or may not also add a top water agitator in the summer from Kasco, we'll have to see on that one.

I guess my short term goal is to get these trout fat and sassy over the winter and enjoy them until July or so.

Long term goal would be to try and get the trout to last year round, TALL order. During this experiment I think I may experiment with a packed column, we'll have to see.

Anyone have a fish feeder they could recommend ?????

There are inexpensive feeders that may or may not work long term.

I can't take the "may not" chance and only recommend Texas Hunter feeders. Many clients are not "do it yourselfers" and if a feeder fails, I'd be getting phone calls. I really dislike those type of phone calls........

esshup, your trophy feeder, does it or will it feed fish in a narrow spray pattern if mounted on shore or a dock? I'm just trying not to cover my new dock or the shore with feed.

The feed pattern is pie wedge shaped, starting at the feeder and spreading wider the further away from the feeder. It's listed as throwing feed for 45' in length, and the width at that distance is 20'.

Thank you so very much Sir.

I have one that Esshup recommended and I would say it throws it out like he says. Possibly a little wider swath like 30 or 35 feet. ( just an observation, not being controversial). But once it's out 40', doesn't matter to me. Doesn't leave any at the feeder. The fines may drop 2' out, but the little fish hang there to clean it up. I'm satisfied.

Do they work good in snowy icy conditions? My deer feeders, not the Texas Hunter brand, always seem to suffer from icing issues.

Everything is inside the unit, and the food exits thru a slit in the side. I've seen zero issues in all types of weather conditions.

These same feeders are used for deer feeders and for feeding corn in a directional throw. Using corn, they hold 125#. Fish food, more like 70#-75#.