Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Trout Habitat and water conditions?

What type of pond conditions do I need to sustain Rainbow trout?
Depth?
Water Temp?
Aeration?
Food Source?

hi brian, i'll take a stab to get a discussion going for you.

back in PA you'll need it deep enought to get through winter ice season (my guess is minimum 8ft),

summer water temps should never surpass 70 if you want happy fish,

aeration is probably a key item, but you have to be careful w/ it, it can be a friend to help keep temps lower & maintain good oxygen levels throughout pond, but it can also be an enemy if run during hot portions of year. you may need to think about circulation and aeration in combination if you dont have a steady cool source of water in summer.

are you planning on feeding? unless you have a nice supply natural forage for larger fish (shad or chubs for example), feeding may be yer only option.

there's some real experienced people here including michael ebaugh, ed eitel, and cecil baird, maybe they'll weigh in.

i dream of having a trout pond one day....good luck.

Thanks for the info Dave.
The site where the pond is going to be built is spring fed by three above ground springs the flow out of the mountainside adjacent to the property. The one spring dried up this summer due to lack of rain but the other two kept on running all summer with cold water.
My plan was to put two small ponds (approx 1/10 acre) that flow into a larger 1-2 acre pond. My intent with the smaller ones was to put FHM in one and Shiners or some other forage in the other (Any suggestions). Then have RT,FHM,LMB,BG,SMB and HSB in the bigger one and feed them pellets as a supplement. I just aint sure how the RT will coexist with HSB. They are both very aggressive fish from what I have seen. I want a variety of fish in the pond but also would like them to get big.
The Timber Co finally finished clearing all harvestable trees
after three years of waiting for them they got my little project behind scedule. Of course, now it will rain three times a week so I cant get anything done at the site. I wanted to put in the two small ponds this fall to get some bait for fishing but the weather isnt cooperating too much.

Hi, Brian --

There is a lot of good information on this site about trout pond management -- and ponds with springs.

I have a small (less than 1/4 acre) spring-fed pond down in Virginia. I think Dave in el dorado has you pointed in the right direction. Maybe Cecil will weigh in, too -- he's quite an expert at raising trout in ponds.

From what I've learned on this site (and through some trial and error), you probably don't want to back water up over your springs; rather, let the spring water flow down into the ponds. Aeration is also very beneficial -- in the case of my little pond, it is absolutely essential. I run it 24/7 all the time, except for the very coldest part of winter (my pond never ices over completely).

What is the flow rate of your springs? Mine runs at an average of about 35 gallons per minute, or 50,000 gallons per day. That's a little on the puny side, but it gets the job done. Since you're farther north, and have somewhat cooler summers, you may be able to get by with less spring flow. Elevation is important, too. I recall seeing an old USDA publication years ago (I'm an old guy) entitled "Trout in Farm and Ranch Ponds." It featured a great map showing contour elevations of the US, with a minimum elevation number indicating _probable_ success of a trout pond. The elevation number for my part of Virginia was 1,500' above sea level. My hunch it could be as low as 1,200' or even 1,000' above sea level for Pennsylvania.

I think rainbows are great pond fish. They respond well to pelleted feed -- but also use the natural food supply in ponds. The ones in my pond love midges and damsel fly nymphs -- and this time of year, they really love grasshoppers that wind up in the pond.

If I had it to do all over again, I would remove all the warmwater species that were in my pond when I got this place. My bass are all pretty small -- almost never exceeding 15" in length. But even at that size, they are very effective predators on small stocked trout ... I lost 40 6"-8" brookies last winter to a handful of hungry (and now very plump) largemouths. The trout seem to co-exist okay with my hyrid sunfish. One side benefit of my feeding program is that many hybrid sunnies are now avid pellet feeders as well -- which really helps them put on the weight. As fly rod fish, they are every bit the equal to the rainbows, in my humble opinion.

I wish I could address the HSB issue, but it's a species I am just not familiar with.
So, to sum up, here's my best counsel: try to get your springs to flow down into your ponds; be sure to explore the benefits of aeration; and try to keep the list of species stocked (along with trout) pretty short.

One more thought: you don't read too much about it, but there are various races and strains of hatchery rainbows available. Some tolerate pond conditions better than others. The two private hatcheries where I purchase my trout here in western Virginia use strains that are well-suited for this climate. I've just marked my fifth summer of having trout survive Virginia summers in my pond -- credit goes to a puny spring, a big aerator, good strains of rainbows, and, above all, to PONDBOSS. The magazine and this site have bailed me out of self-inflicted pond management woes many a time!

Good luck and keep us all up to date on how your pond project progresses.
-- Mike Smith, Lexington, VA

If you do a search for trout threads to read, try putting "Cecil Baird1" in the member name field. Cecil routinely grows RBT, Browns, and Brookies to 10+ lbs in a tiny pond with well water running in 24/7 in the warm months to hold the water temp down.

Questions and thoughts:

What is the combined flow of your two springs that flow year around? I run in about 41 gpms 24/7 from March to Novemember and my max temps in my 1/10th acre pond in the hottest part of the summer are the low 60's F. I also use a max pouunds rule of 12 lbs. per gpm final max size of trout. For example: If I ran 50 gpms of spring water into a pond I would not want to go above 600 lbs of trout. (50 X 12 = 600 lbs.) Lets say max size of rainbows is 7 lbs. average, that means if I waited to harvest them at an average size of 7 lbs. I would not want more than 85 of them in the pond at that size at one time. If you exceed carrying capacity you may run into D.O. problems and ammonia problems which could cause subsequent stress or even death.

Smaller is better when it comes to pond size for trout if you have cold water coming in as in the springs. It's easier to keep the temps down in the hottest part of the summer with a smaller pond. I wouldn't worry about max pond depth for winter as most likely your ponds won't freeze over with spring flow coming in. But make your banks as steep as possible to keep warming down in summer. If you do make them steep make adequate adjustments for anyone that could fall in whether they be tresspassers or children.

If possible funnel your spring water flow into a PVC pipe(s) and drop it over rocks etc. to aerate before dumping into the pond.

I wouldn't put any other species in with your trout for three reasons: 1.) The trout don't always compete well with other species and may get stressed. 2.) If the water is in the optimum temps for your trout they are suboptimal for fish that are not coldwater fish, and you many end up with thoses species stunted.3.) You could bring in disease that could cause serious problems with your trout.

Optimum conditions for trout in a pond are:

55 to 65 F. Lower temps than that are not a problem but you won't get optimum growth. I have less then optimum temps in my ponds from November to March but it doesn't hurt them at all. In fact, I shut off my well flow the 1st of November until sometime in March and allow the 1/10th acre pond to freeze over with no problems. No feeding then and I keep the snow off of the ice.

D.O. minimum 5.0 ppm more is better

If you have a trout choice between a source that is certified disease free and one that is not I would go with the certified source. No need to bring problems into your ponds that may be impossible to erradicate later.

Trout are a piece of cake if you have good water quality. The trout available these days are domesticated and adapt well to ponds.

Flowing your trout pond(s) into another large pond is not a bad idea, and if the pond is 2 acres it shouldn't be cooled to much for your warmwater fish. However be aware if you feed you fish (strongly recommended) you will be flowing in nutrients which can be fine if not excessive or cause weed and algae bloom problems if they are excessive. However that can be dealt with by various methods.

One more thing: Don't plant trout that vary significantly in size. If you do the smaller ones may not get enough to eat and stay small or if they are small enough trout chow for the bigger trout.

Cecil,
The flow that I am getting out of the combined springs is averaging 90 GMP in Fall/Spring/Winter and 66 GMP in Summer.
The water temp was 58 Deg in Aug when I checked it. So I might better off with more than one pond if I want trout and some other species? I guess the best forage for them would be FHM since they propagated so much. I am hoping to get a Dozer in to start some of the work in Oct if the weather cooperates. I have been using my John Deere Skid steer to do alot of the work but it isnt made for what a throwing at it.

Brian Let's see if Cecil will add some comments about beneficial components of pond construction.
Should his pond be drainable or seinable? Which is preferable?

HOw steep should his sides be? Will vertical sides slide in or cave in?.

It their an optimum depth for the basin?.

Is 1/10 acre ponds adequate for his spring water flow rate?

Sounds like you could go with two 1/10th acre ponds for trout or one that 1/5th acre for trout and have that pond overflow into another pond for coolwater/warmwater fish. But then again you could go with one 1/1oth acre pond and be very safe for the trout for even brook trout which prefer colder water and then overflow this into a large pond at least 3/4 acre.

I see planting fathead minnows as expensive as they will be eaten up rapidly. I would go with pellets if I were you.

If you water stays pretty cool I would also suggest a couple of diffusers spaced apart on the bottom to keep aerobic decomposition going to process wastes.