A friend just sent me these pics of trout that he and another friend caught out of my trout pond a few years back.

The first is of him with a couple of browns in the 8 to 9 pound range out of the pond.



The next photo is of myself tabulating weights and lengths of 10 brown trout to 9 lbs. before freezing. I had to tell them to stop fishing as I was running out of freezer space!



Funny story about that evening's fishing:

I had a husband and wife over that afternoon to catch them with Orvis rods, vests, fancy flies, the whole nice yards. I tried to tell them my big browns weren't interested in itty bitty fies but they would have none of it. I offered them some of my pantyhose pellets and that was met with disdain.

While I went out to check on them a big approximately 8 pound brown came straight out of the water like an upright porpoise as if to take a gander at them. Or perhaps he was laughing. Take your pick. Of course they did what every angler would do, they cast to the fish but to no avail. Anyway, after over 2 hours of flailing the water they gave up in a huff.

Not long after they left a couple of my friends showed up and eagerly took the pantyhose pellet flies. I remember one of them saying, "Hey whatever works is fine with me." The rest was some really fast fishing for some nice big hook jawed male browns as you can see!

These browns were definitely locked into "match the hatch." Believe it or not they had no interest in live bait either. They wanted the pellets!

Funny story about fancy, idealistic fishermen.
Your work is a very good example of fantastic fish that can be raised in a dinky pond. For all the old and new members, please post a picture of the little pond where you raised those dandy brown trout. Maybe try geting a picture of the pond from the back upper deck.

Also, can you tell how many pounds of trout were in the pond? I know water quality means a lot to raising fish, what do you do to keep the water quality conditions optimal?

I stock to harvest 500 lbs. of fish. I weigh every trout removed and do a total weight each harvest. It's more about the inflow of fresh well water and the water exchange rate as in the removal of suspended solids, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates then it is the pond itself. A rule of thumb is 12 lbs, of fish per gallon per minute of flow. So in my case around 45 gpm X 12 equals approximately 500 lbs. max of trout.

The sides of the pond ( 88 X 59 feet ) are steep sided to keep warming down and the 51.6 F. well water keeps the pond water temps maximum on the surface in the mid to upper 60's in a normal summer. The pond is 8 or 9 feet deep maximum and I run a diffuser in the center on the bottom 24/7 except in the summer when I run it only at night.

Ironically the larger fish don't need as good of water quality as smaller trout. Hence why you will see the smaller trout in raceways kept closest to the inflows.

I'd love to post a picture but photobucket is acting up again. I think it's time to try a new photo host site as this is getting to be a regular thing.

O.K. here's one from the side looking east.



Here's an aerial view with the trout pond just behind the house and the garage/apartment.



The trout pond is the one closest to the house in the following photo. I have raised trout in the one on the left in the back but that pond gets a little warmer then the one closest to the house.

WOW cecil that's a bueatiful peice of property you got i love the log cabin home, and i have to say that im definatly jelous of the location of the ponds to the house i have to walk down a realy steep long path to get to my pond. you're ponds in my book anyway are the perfect size not so big that you have to spend thousands of dollars to stock yet you have plenty of room to fish. were the ponds there when you bought the house? and how did you take the one pic it doesn't look like a google earth pic to me did you do it with an rc airplane or heli?

How old are these trout. They are incredible!!

Thanks for the kind words SP. I have to remind myself from time to time how blessed I am.

To stock the pond with 125 mostly male 7 to 8 inch brook trout last fall was about $300.00. It costs me more because I ask my supplier to sort only males for me. This fall they should be about 15 to 16 inches. The following fall they should be 20 to 22 inches and 4 1/2 to 6 lbs. plus.

Hopefully all it will cost me next time is the cost of a few female browns to produce some tiger trout and I will hatch my own trout from then on.

The pic is taken from a plane. There is no shortage of people taking aerial photos and trying to sell them to you here.

I had all the ponds dug by two different contractors.

4 to 5 year olds.

Cecil -- with all that, why ain't you wealthy?

Do you think you could get RT to that size in the same setting?

Blair, I stocked 2# RBT in October, and at the end of June they were 7#.

That's hard to beat Scott wow.

Wealth comes in many forms. Just be glad you don't have my house payment. LOL

Rainbows are the fastest growers followed by browns and then brooks. I don't raise bows to sell to taxidermists because they are much more common than brooks and browns and I prefer to raise harder to acquire species.

Cecil, every time you post a picture it puts a smile on my face, beautiful fish!

Always happy to put a smile on someone's face.

1What happens under the ice with these big fellas as far as water quality?
2 You shutdown the well in the fall I presume?
3 Do you feed at all during winter?
4How many turnovers per night with aeration in the summer?
5How much do you aerate in winter?

Sorry for the questions but this is exciting my brain.

No problems under the ice.

Didn't feed before this winter with no problems. However this winter I fed them in the open water created by a shallow diffusser every 4 to 5 days.

I shut down the well during the winter.

The pond turns over about 65 percent per 24 hours. 45 gpm X 24 hrs. = 64,800 gal divided by volume of pond @ 100,000 gal = 64.8 %.

Aeration in winter is 24/7 with one air stone in shallow water.

Thanks for the info Cecil. This gets me fired up to finish my little pond.

One pointer: Don't shut down the well too soon in the fall or wait too long in the spring to crank it up if your fish are large. Water temp may be fine along with D.O. but you could have some ammonia, nitrites, and nitrate issues as nitrification is not up to par due to lower temps, but your fish continue to produce ammonia and their waste products do the same.

An easy way to determine this is with a simple API aquarium test kit.

Unlike other species trout are not only more sensitive to ammonia and nitrites but also more sensitive to nitrates that can build up due to no water exchange.

Should I think about trying to run it all winter maybe half as much gpm. It should be easy enough to design the pump/pipe to do so. The pond is in sand and in the water table so pumping won't flow out of pond or change the water levels.....or maybe slowly pumping out of the pond and let ground water replace pond water and that might get ammonia out better. The difference would be 2 feet in water level though I would think. It will change kind of like Dwight's levels change in comparison to the creek that flows by his pond.

Will pumping water in to the small pond get rid of ammonia and nitrates through sand????

Lets see what Cecil says, but I think pumping in would work better than pumping out. Too great of a risk of the water not coming into the pond quick enough if pumping out. Plus pumping out will have low DO water coming into the pond. Just the opposite of what you want in the winter.

Thanks Scott I was aware about the do2 issue with ground water but probably the same as the stuff I'm pumping. The pond will have aeration in shallow end.

I would way rather pump in due to the extra water level. As another note my lawn sprinklers will pump out of this pond from the deepest point to try and take nutrients out and put them on the grass.
Looks like I should start my own thread.

If you pump in as Cecil does, running the water thru a stacked column, it adds O2 and removes any harmful gasses at the same time. I think if it was pumping continually, it wouldn't freeze up in the winter, no matter how cold it got out.

Or what about a Venturi to suck air into the water. I would lose some pump efficiency. Lots of different things to consider I guess.

Just as another thread about your goals changing. You see one picture of what Cecil does and it makes you want to push your pond harder.

Ditto.

I'd stay away from pumping air into the water via a Venturi. If you are pumping ground water you already have supersaturation of nitrogen which you want to reduce the potential of gas bubble trauma. Why would you want to add more nitrogen?

Do I understand you correctly that you want to pump in water in the winter? Why when you don't have to?

Two rules I live by even in my recirc systems:

1.) Don't do something that is not necessary that will increase your utility costs.

2.) Use gravity flow whenever possible as in a gravity drop through media to aerate and blow off gases or to move water around.

I was thinking since you said pump as late in the fall and as early in the spring as possible that our extra long winters would be to much time between getting flow through. Maybe cutting my carrying capacity is a better way to go.

This ground water is basically a weeping tile in my big lake with sand over the tile to filter it a bit. This water should not be very high in nitrogen( but I have no idea) I thought the Venturi would suck air and add oxygen to the water but again I didnt know there would be consequences.

Thanks for your inputs this isn't completed yet so it's good to know this stuff now.

So you're gonna break down and raise some tiger trout are you? ;-)

I keep getting calls for them but don't have access to a supplier in the region that produces them. The closest that might do the required health testing is in New Jersey.

I figure if I grow out both brooks and browns, and I usually get some females even though I request all males -- I might as well see if I can produce some.

I still say male brook in full spawning colors trump any other trout species bar none including tiger trout.

Cecil, Cecil, Cecil, thanks for making another man jealous! Beautiful pics man! That brooktout is amazing!

Hi Cecil- I have done a search for your pictures of how you are oxygenating the well water but can't seem to find them...any chance you can post them again in this post? Im in Southern Ontario and am boarderline having my pond hold my Brook Trout all year long...this year I have my largest Brookies yet and would love to see them live thru the summer and I have lots of access to well water...just need to figure out how you got the DO into it again!

Thanks..Ryan

Sure thing.

It's basically known as a packed column (packed with plastic media), but unlike some others it's not a solid piece of pipe but 5 gallon buckets joined together with a space in between each one to allow more air flow.

Be aware that you are not only adding oxygen you're blowing off nitrogen gas, C02, and any sulfides.

Each bucket has a circle cut out of the bottom where plastic cage material is seated to keep the media in. Water is pumped up and then dropped via gravity through the media. The water then drops into an epdm lined pit about 6'X 6' by 3 feet deep where it runs under ground to the trout pond via 4 inch PVC pipe. Just before it dumps into the trout pond it comes up an upturned elbow to add even more aeration.

I would not suggest digging the pit etc. A tank would be a better idea or have the column at the pond edge. I have some issues with water pushing up under the liner especially when I shut the well down in the fall or after a heavy rain and I'm not pumping water. I also have slow leak in the liner as the water goes down over time once I shut off the well. I have sand vein on one side of the liner.

It's important to cut a round piece of plastic for at least the top bucket with lots of holes drilled into it and place it a few inches down on top of the media to evenly distribute the water. This is know as a distribution plate.

I went a step further this year and put one in each bucket as in the past once the water drops past the media in the first bucket it concentrated down to only about 4 inches in diameter not utilizing all of the media. This may be due the buckets and media over sized for the amount of flow.

The top bucket showing the distribution plate. Under this is the plastic media.



More pictures. The orange color is of course iron. I have about 2.5 mg/l of iron in my well water.

















The plastic media I bought years ago from Keeton Industries. They are an advertiser on here.



The water line that comes up from the well that is black in the picture is now white as I wrapped it with white duck tape to keep heating from the sun down. Probably doesn't make a big difference but just in case it might I did so.

I've had problems with the top bucket handle ripping out of the plastic due to the increased weight of the buckets due to iron build up. If you look closely I have wrapped plastic coated wire to add additional support.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Cecil, what are you using to connect the buckets together?

Thanks Cecil for the pictures. Im not sure if I have the time to make a setup like that for this year. Currently I have 40 16
" brookies, and a couple browns and tigers in a rather large 6'x6'x10'tall(the cage is totally in the water but the top 6" or so) .I built the cage in April as it was easy to fish them out of the pond at that time but almost impossible to get them all out once they started to show signs of dying. The trout are doing really well in the cage with no signs of any issues at all.

My pond is all ground source water and is built right into the water table as 2/3's of the pond is surrouned by swamp. The water level never drops even in the sever drought years like last year but the issue is that the water tems creep up to the low 70's in mid july/august and this is always when I have my issues with them dying. Would it be possible to add cold well water to the pond at night directly over the cage VIA a large sprinkler that gets the water pretty hight into the air? The well water is 49 degree's and our night time temperatures are usually in the low 60's.

Last year I quit feeding right about this time and the brookies didn't start dying until mid Aug which at the time I had to net them to get them out before death..(browns and Tigers survied).

Just wondering if you think the sprinkler could possibly work with spot cooling the pond and if it would be able to oygenate the well water due to the breaking of surface tension? (3 years ago I had a DO crash due to a turn over and I ran my trash pump non stop for 24 hours shooting water up over the pond and what looked like a feirce rain storm and I was amazed at what it did to the DO and actually saved alot of the trout).

Ryan

Cecil- thanks for this thread and the recent bump. I missed it back in March when you first posted up those incredible trout pics.

Your pond is such an inspiration and I had been thinking and wondering a bunch the past few days about your system. This thread answered a lot of my questions, so thanks.

I have a few RBT that I stocked at 12 inches just over a year ago, that look to be pushing 5+ pounds now. Super exciting so see one rise up and crest the surface when feeding.

Cheers to raising big beautiful trout in modest sized ponds!
Keep up the inspiring work, and thank you for sharing.

Ryan,

I honestly don't know the answer to your question. Sometimes you just have to try something and see if it works.

What is tbe size of your pond again and hiw much ground water flow do you have to work with?

Glad to be of help. Just remember there is more thsn one way to skin a cat. I've often wondered if I'd be better off running aerated well water directly to the bottom of the pond. Problem is if it doesn't work i could loose the trout.

Plastic strips of an underlayment material I got from Stoney Creek that is used to mount diffusers to along with some bolts. I'm sure you could use about anything including bent wire.

[/quote]

Ryan,

I honestly don't know the answer to your question. Sometimes you just have to try something and see if it works.

What is tbe size of your pond again and hiw much ground water flow do you have to work with? [/quote]

The pond is aprox 1/3rd of an acre and is peanut shaped with two deep holes on either end aprox 18' deep. The water table stays constant all year long (even last year it dropped an inch or two at the most). The swampy area really a pete bogg as you can walk on it and has birch tree's growing and even some hard maples, but you sink a shovel down and its nice soil for 10" and then you better be holding on to the shovel because you will lose it in the pete moss/water and it is at least 15' before you hit anything at all hard. Along the edge of my property where the bog is ground water flows out of the bog all summer long into the road side ditch (not surface run off but weaping right out of the side of the ditch). This water is 55-60 degree's coming out of the bog area and imagine is the same temp going into the pond also. The issue is that after a few weeks of hot sun, the pond temp slowly starts creaping up to the low 70's and in the past this is when I have had the brookies start to show signs of stress and dye.

I can either pump water from the house well down to the pond and spot cool the cage area with the 49 degree well water(the cage is in the middle second of the pond that is 10' deep) OR I have also thought of driving a few well points into the edge of the bog area and pulling out the warmer ground water that is 55-60 deg and use that. My issue is I don't have much time this year to do the well point and buy a pump but I have lots of tubing to bring water down from the house.

Thanks again...Ryan

Hi again Cecil- after my previous post this afternoon I decided to call up my local pond supplier and see if I could find any media like you have in yours. Sure enough he had a bunch of it that had been sitting around for a while and he gave me a great deal for it. It is actually little round 5/8" barrel looking pieces with what almost looks like a cork screw inside it that he says creats a vortex and induces air as the water travels thru it.

I got more than enough media to fill at least 5 buckets if I want. I am just curious as to what you have done to the bottom of each bucket...you mentioned you cut the bottom out but I can't figure out how you have attached the mesh or what ever you used to the bottom of the pail?

I also showed him the pictures of your setup and he thought it looked great and mentioned to me that one other thing I could do seeing I am only pumping 20gph is suplement the flow with pond water...he said although you wont decrease the temperature with it...It will oxygenate, and remove the unwanted gasses much faster than it would naturally in my pond seeing there isn't a whole lot of plant mater and create much more needed disolved oxygen. He thinks with the 20gph from the well and that much more from the pond directly over the trout cage it should work just fine and I can pull the water out out of the deeper, shaded area at the far end of the pond.

One other thing he said I could do if I wanted would be to wrap the cage with ridged blue 2" foam (foil back on the top reflecting sunlight)and wrap the sides down the first 4 feet. This would act like a cooler keeping the warmer surface water on the outside of the cage.

Looks like I have a busy next few days on our long holliday Canada Day weekend!!!

Can you pump water out of your pond and get rid of it some how? Pumped water out would be replaced by cool gound water. You would need aeration as the ground water seeping in would be void of do2 but it would be cold. I have maybe mentioned this before in another thread.

Running a diffuser aeration system only at night would help a lot. Most nights here in the summer are around 12C or 54F

The bucket thing is really simple Ryan. A hole is cut in the bottom of the bucket leaving a lip of about 2 inches. Then you cut out a piece of plastic mesh that fits the entire width of the bottom of the bucket held in place with the lip. Drop the media first in from the top bucket and put the screen in the bottom of the next bucket and fill and so forth.

Hi Cecil and others following this thread- Just thought I would share my setup for the degasser/oxygenator that I got around to putting together yesterday on our holliday yesterday here in Canada. I landed up getting 5 cubic feet of bio-barrels (they are designed for degassers but am not sure if they are available down in the US) I should have taken a picture of them but will later today. I was originally planning on only running 4 pails but the local pond shop gave me a great deal on the 5 cubic feet which was enough to fill 8-5 gallon pails (I used 7 pails and have enough left over for topping them up if needed). The very bottom pail is catching all the water and diverting it thru the hose and into the top of the cage. Last night was the first night and it dropped the temperature from the evening to the morning from 68 degrees to 62 degree's.

I ran the water with the valve half cracked and was getting aprox 8gpm (full tilt it was doing 22gpm)but I was worried about having low pressure in the house for the water softner and iron filter that runs nightly. I am going to pick up a pressure reducing valve so I can adjust the flow to the pond. I am hoping after last night that this may just be enough to keep them cool and oxygenated for the next month or two.

I am still trying to figure out if it it would be benificial to run pond water from the bottom in the deep ends durring the day...what are your thoughts?

Here are the pictures of my setup. (never mind the picture of my goofy brother!!!)

Ryan that is awesome! Any drop in temp from the first to the last bucket?

And yes biobarrels are available in the states. I know a trout farmer that uses them.

The only concern I would have is if the black hose could heat the water up every so slightly. However perhaps not as the water is moving.

I wrapped my black water line with white duck tape.

you know, I never even checked to see if there was a temperature drop from the top bucket to the bottom. I will use my lazer tomorrow and check that! Its actually amazing to smell how much the air around the bucket gaps stink when the water is running thru. Our well is higher in iron but nothing extreme but the smell deffinatly has a rotten egg smell to it. I thought about the black hose heading to the cage and right now I am going to just run it at night so heat isn't a huge concern right now. The feed line running from the house is 350 feet long but is totally in the shade as its running entirely thru my hard maple bush. The only thing I have yet to do and will be happening this week is I am going to get some 1" ridged foam and cover the top (sides down to the water)and also I am going to put 4x8 sheets on all 3 sides as well as along the dock.I will have blocked the sunlight to aprox 250sq/ft in the cage area and I am thinking I could possibly run even 2-3gpm of water durring the day or the hours of say 11am-4pm while the sun is directly casting light on the pond to just keep the water on the cool side but well oxygenated.

Ryan

You're smelling hydrogen sulfide being blown off. Mine has a little of that too. What is your Ph out of the well? It's not an issue the higher your Ph is.

I tested the temps tonight of the water in each section of the setup and I was quite suprised at what I found. My well water temps in the basement at the pressure tank is 49.5 degree's. From the preasure tank it flows thru aprox 6' of copper, thru the newly installed adustable pressure valve and into the tubing making its way down to the pond(aprox 350 feet of 3/4" plastic tube black poly). At the poing that it enters the buckets it was actually up to 58.5 degree's (air temps tonight were 72deg and the ground temp was 75.5 deg). The tubing is running on the ground for aprox 2/3rd's of the distance so I am asuming that the temperature of the air and ground is pulling the cold out of the water.

Here is the strange part of the whole thing...and these are the temps from the bottom of each bucket measured with my lazer temp sensor where the largest volume of water is making its way thru the bio-barrels.

Pail #1= 58.5
#2= 58.3
#3= 57.5
#4= 56.5
#5= 55.25
#6= 53.5
#7(the exit point of the water from the degasser) is 51.5

I am totally amazed that the temperatures are actually decreasing and the smell comming off the pails is ALOT stronger on the lower sections than the upper ones. I never in my life would have imagined a temp decrease of 7 degree's. I don't have a DO tester but I would be really intrested in seeing what the percentage of oxygen actually is coming out of the system.

Are these numbers similar to yours Cecil?

To be honest with you Ryan I have not attempted to see if their is a temperature change from bucket to bucket but I expected there is one due to cooling power of evaporation. Or so say the texts. Perhaps someone else here can explain it?

I'll see if I can take some readings tomorrow and report back for a comparison. My best temp sensor is on loan with my D.O. meter but I do have a PH meter that also does temp.

Do you have the newest Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems catalog? If not on page 279 they show the following for D.O. saturation for buckets they sell:

Inlet water 57 % oxygen 110 percent nitrogen
Outlet water after one segment 76 % oxygen/ 106 % nitrogen
Outlet water after two segments 84% oxygen /104 % nitrogen
Outlet water after three segments 89 % oxygen / 103 % nitrogen
Outlet water after four segments 92 % oxygen /102 % nitrogen
Outlet water after five segments 94 % oxygen/ 101 % nitrogen

Perfect- Like I said I was just using my laser temperature sensor and I was shooting directly into the bottom of the pails.

After my earlier post tonight...it really has me thinking now of pumping pond water thru it from the cooler, deeper depths. Do you think the water from below the termocline would be degassed and oxygenated enough after going thru the system? Im thinking a larger volume of water would create alot more turbulence in the pails and air movement.

It's worth a try. It would also eliminate as much water line exposed to warm temps right? Also give your house well a break?

not having a DO meter...do you know aproximatly the increase in oxygen levels after each of your pails? If I were pulling water from the deepest depths of the pond (16-18feet) and below the termocline...do you think it would make the water going back into the pond benificial to the trout and worth the expense of another pump and electricity?

I really only intend to run the well water or pump from the pond from the hours of 7pm to 7am week days and could run all weekend long if needed. (Ontario has Time Of Use hydro charges and electricity between the hours of 7pm and 7am is just over half the cost of power durring the day and is the same cheaper price on weekends and hollidays)

No I don't and can't check, as like i said, my D.O. Meter is on loan. I do know your first bucket will have the greatest increase in D.O. It should be similar to the info I posted from the Pentair aquatics ecosystems catalog.

What you would be doing would be similar to a tailrace fishery. That is the dam pulls water from the cold hypoxic waters of a reservoir (instead of the top) and it becomes aerated as it is exposed to air and tumbles on rocks.