Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Will rainbow trout eat bluegills?

If I stock RBT, 150 fish in 3/4 of an acre pond, and give them a year head start, can I stock a small number of bluegill and expect the RBT to keep them in check(with my kids fishing them as well)?

I'm very curious about this. I can't even get my rainbows, all over 18", to eat my fathead minnows. I've not found one minnow in one single trout I've caught. They won't even bite on a fathead if I use one for bait. I'm sure they must eat a few, I just can't prove it. The brown trout I have are another story.

With you being in Arizona, I can't really answer with any confidence.

I believe I'm in a much colder mountain climate, so I'm not sure my observations hold for your area. I can just provide my observations.

Most years, my "warm water" ponds are suitable for trout from early October to early June. The trout are a lot of fun for multiple reasons.

I didn't put any in this season because we froze over in early October, and we are still significantly frozen over. I'm actually glad I didn't try to put them in this season.

In the many seasons I've stocked them, I've always done examinations of their stomach contents when we've taken them out in April and May. Most years I have found stomachs with bass and bluegill fingerling remains.

About three or four years ago, after two very bad winters, I found mostly pine needles in the stomachs of my winter trout. My fisheries biologist friends believe it was because the trout didn't have enough fry and fingering to eat. They were going after whatever forage was available in my structure of sunken evergreens.

When, and if, I have open water, I feed high-fat/high-protien feed to my fish.

I wish I had better answers.

Good luck,
Ken

TS,
FWIW As a newbie, this is probably a naive view but what the heck, I have been wrong on most stuff so this just adds to the list. IMHO My thought is a pond is like a restaurant and the fish are the customers. They look over the menu and pick what they want to eat. Must be something in the pond they prefer to FHM if they are not eating them. You say there are no minnows in the RBT stomachs; what is?

Captwho,

So IMHO, if BG, that will fit in the RBT's mouth, is the the best thing on the menu, they will nail them.

Trout chow is in their stomach, floating trout chow.

If you don't feed the trout pellets will they consume some smaller BG??. The big unknowns are How many will they eat? Enough to avoid BG over population? Will the trout grow very much if their main fish forage is BG??

I've said this earlier. If it were my pond I would try having the caretaker raise some BG in a cage until you could recognize male & female. He is going to be feeding the trout daily anyway?.? Then when large enough just stock the male fish. OR easier and simpler way is, contact the local fish farms and have one that is agreeable custom raise you some BG (7"-8") and just buy the males or buy both sexes, then you and the caretaker eat the females and stock the males.

IMO You are risking the possibility of the demise of having a nice trout fishery by stocking mixed sex BG into a trout pond. Although, we may find that trout will not survive year round for long term in your pond. Then trout are out of the picture. Then plan B if the trout fishery fails, I would stock RES & or YP with smallmouth bass which will enjoyable for the kids and you. All of those should live well in your higher elevation pond. If that fails then use plan C: LMbass-bluegill. It will not take long after stocking for the LMB-BG to become the dominant fishes.

I have seen trout lakes with gsf and the gsf are not controlled by them. Even when small amounts of lmb are added The gsf stayed out of cotrol. Of course bg are not gsf but I would say unless you had a true "hog" pond established the trout would not care to keep the bg under control. They would probably compete for food sources.

RBT stomach contents in Condellos old place demonstrated they prey on YOY fish of all species per Ken's observation. Enough to control BG populations? I would strongly suspect they would NOT be able to keep up.

HBG might work, or RES as a companion lepomis species to RBT. Or, per Bill's suggestion, what about YP, SMB, and RES in addition to your RBT? 3 will easily pellet train, and the RES will clean up your crustaceans and do well I think.

If you are committed to BG/RBT - per Bill, go single sex BG is my advice.

In my pond where I have BG and GSF, the RBT will go after them. HOWEVER, it will only happen when you do not feed the RBT for a good period of time, and even then I don't think they will be able to control them to your satisfaction. If there were no other forage and the RBT lived year-long, perhaps that would be something that would tilt the table in your favor. Experimental you might say. The RBT would/might have to be stocked like in a trophy BG pond, where there is so many RBT they will become stunted. Also a side thought: if the RBT can live year long in the cold, will the BG not flourish as much in a warm water pond?

For those thinking of YP for Captwho, here is a link for some info that pertains to him/this:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=402454&page=1