I am contemplating stocking trout for the winter in our old farm pond. It's 2.2 acres and average depth is 4'. The bass population was out of control but is now approaching balance (see link below for details). I have so many questions!

Would I have to supplement with feed if I were to stock trout? Would unfed trout further depress my forage base? How many trout should I stock? Does anyone know a reputable supplier for central Missouri?

(1) You don't "have to", but if you want them to grow to a larger size, yes. If it was my pond, and I wanted them to grow, I would.

(2) They've gotta eat something, right? The big question is whether they will eat enough to affect the forage for the LMB. They might only affect the forage base for the forage fish (BG), or if they are larger (say 1# and up) they might also eat some small fish. The more that you feed them, the less they will eat natural forage in the pond.

(3) How many do you want to catch and eat?

(4) I can't help you there.

If you stock trout small enough for the bass to eat, then you might not catch that many.....

Bocomo...we have one of the best trout farms in the nation in Ava, Missouri....Call Crystal Lake Fisheries at 417-683-2301. It has been a family owned operation producing the "Emmerson" Rainbow for over 50 years.

I think Esshup covered it pretty good, and will just add my simple experience for my situation.

I stocked 50 RBT in my 1 acre pond to knock back a GSF hatch before my actual stockers went in. The GSF were about 1.5-2" and the trout were 11-13" when stocked. I did NOT feed them from stocking thru winter. They did hammer a lot of those small fish. Now I don't have actual proof of that, those GSF may just have been hiding somewhere that I no longer could see them, but the trout grew very well. I then fed them some into late spring and early summer. When I harvested them, I never found any fish the stomachs of the trout, just feed. That kind of goes along with what is often said here on the forum. They much prefer the feed.

Now a question/thought that may pertain to you and perhaps someone could answer. The LMB are more fusiform(?) than BG, so would the trout go after them first???? That may help you out in having to thin so many next year, but if they go after the forage of the LMB, perhaps it's not good.

Here is my first year experience with a put and take trout pond. I am in NW Ohio and last year stocked 35 RBT with no other fish in the pond other than FHM (heavy swimming traffic as this is the social gathering place of the neighborhodd in the summer). Stocked them in the last week I think of Sept last year and had a harvest party in May. What a blast and worth every penny!

Areation all winter so open water to feed in the coldest of weather and for the most part they fed on pellets all winter except that the amount and vigor reduced on very cold days.

On average we estimate they put on 1.25 to 1.75 pounds in seven months. I just restocked 40 RBT a little bigger this year and I will be feeding less more often as I would like to keep the growth rate to around 1.5 pounds as I found the large growth rates just really led to big bellies and less actual growth.

Anyway I am hooked from now till the day I am tossing feed from my walker in Jan or until I leave for parts with palm tress there will always be trout in my pond over winter. Really breaks up the duldrum.

Good luck.

Also the FHM really helped contribute to their growth rates. With no other fish to fight for the food chaing the FHM population expanded rapidly all summer then the trout come in and nearly take them out. Then by the time I stocked again this year the FHM were back by the 100's of thousands. It seems to be working out well as a nice natural build up then balance out cycle.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It certainly sounds like fun. How big is your place? The guy at the Ava fishery recommended 100-200 pounds (at 1#/fish) for my little 2.2 acres. Seems like a lot to me.

Thank you! I called them this morning.

I wish I could get my hands on some of those.

Bocomo are you placing an order. I would be interested in some for my pond too. What are their prices?

And they have a spring flow of 10 millions gallons a day. Holy Cow! That would fill 10 of my 3/4 acre ponds a day!

PM sent.

Thanks.

I just talked to him. I'm going to head down Thursday and pick some up. Was thinking 50 half pounders. Should be nice eating size in spring. Kind of exciting the pond fun won't be ending soon and will continue all winter. Now to come up with my hauling system. He said 50 gallon would be good aerated. Very nice guy. Thanks BoCoMo and Rainmain for the info.

Just get a snorkel, put a long tube on the end and into the trout bucket so you can sit in the cab and aerate as you drive.

Lol!

Good one. I'll have to remember that next time someone asks me the best way to haul fish!

LOL Cecil I was just about to send you a PM with that very question!!

40 cu. ft. oxygen tank, regulator, flow valve/meter and a micropore diffuser. Basically the same set-up George1 uses to revive his HSB when he catches them.

Enough non-iodized salt to make a 0.5% solution and a chemical to nutralize ammonia wouldn't hurt either.

Should I put ice bottles in my totes to keep water cool. It's a two hour drive for me.

Haha, okay, what I really meant was what's the cheapest way I can jury-rig a system that can haul 50 lbs of trout 4 hours on the highway to my place?

He told me on phone a 55 gallon drum with an aerator would be sufficient to haul mine 2 hours. I ordered 25lbs. I got two 27 gallon totes. I will plug a 60 gallon double port aerator pump into my escape and push air into two 18" micro bubbler stones in each tote. I will tell you how that worked out Thursday. I'm worrying about water temp right now.

Okay, cool. Stocking photos, please!

Will do

Study, Study, Study. I'm super excited about these trout. This is one fish I do know. My father thought me to catch trout as early as I can remember. Rest his soul. Fought my trout when I was 3 at Maramec Spring Park. My dad taught me every angle of catching them to cleaning and filleting each one in less than a minute. He was a bait fisherman that was trying to learn how to fly fish when he died suddenly of a heart attack at 51. I'm now trying to learn fly fishing at 32 so this should be good. I can still peel and fillet them things today in under 45 sec. Personal best being 36.8 sec. I hope this works out. If it does I will be doing this every winter. Glad this came up. Thanks again BoCoMo and Rainmain for hookup. Wish dad was still here for this one. This could be my new focal plan of pond. Wish pond was spring fed. I think these boogers might be able to take out some of those F2 HBG too. It's win win!

Well made trip with my totes in Escape. 50 % went well. Arrived and put water in first tote. It had a single hole in corner. Dang. Very friendly and professional staff gave me liners for totes. I bought the most expensive aeration stones walmart had to offer. They lined totes for me and I hooked up aeration. They put fish in each on and loosely ducked taped for 2 hour trip home. I could tell owner was not impressed with set up. He went ahead and loaded fish and made it home in record time. He said before I left he would replace fish if they did not make it and I get home and open first tote super surprised. All fish in first tote were super alive. I'm very happy at this point. I release them and move on to next tote. All fish but three were belly up. The airline cord came off stone. I had to clean and fillet them out. Perfect side for eating. I called and he said come back with larger setup Monday. I now have a 300 gallon setup. Heading out Monday for a do over.




My new setup.

Try again Monday.
I'll pick up the ones he is replacing and get 50 more.

Excellent John. I've always wanted to go there.

John, are you going to fill the tank to check for leaks before leaving?

That's terrible that the fish croaked.

Very cool of the guy to replace those fish that you lost.

What was stored in the tank before you got it?

Esshup, doesn't that officially make him a pondmeister?

John, question. What was the average weight of those fish?

Nope, they didn't make it to his pond yet.....

I passed by a place last week that had those IBC totes for 50 bucks. I can't remember where it was now. They would come in handy for conditioning water. Dang brain cells anyway

Yeah they did!!

Half went in the pond already on the first run

He probably got it from work. Looking up the name on the label, it's a natural antioxidant used as a preservative in pet food.

Yes half made it in pond. I work at a dog food factory and it had a natural ingredient in it. I seen one at his place and he said a lot of clients use them to haul fish. He said just cut hole in top out and get a long net to dip them out. I cut hole and climbed inside and scrubbed clean with dawn dish soap. What would best the way to aerate this thing? I have a 60 gallon aquarium pump but not sure that would do the job for this big tank. I could put my small generator on trailer with tote and run about anything. Do you guys think one more 60 gallon pump would work. He said I would only have to fill it half to three quarters of the up for my fish. I'm going to pick up a few more for all the problems he helped me with on my first haul. That was just one run in pics. He said he had 8 more runs. Might get me some golden ones on trip Monday too. On top of all that he did not even charge me there. Just gave me an invoice to send a check. Very nice people to work with. I hope to see more of his place next trip. If this all works good I will be doing business with them every year. Still can't believe lowes is selling totes with one tiny hole in each corner.

I ordered 50 quarter half pound ones. Most were 3/4 pond range easy. That was another thing he did for me. He told me on phone he usually has a $200 min for order but he let me buy smaller amount anyway. Awesome customer service. I asked if I did this next year what would be max amount for my quarter acre pond. He said I could prob do 100 to 150 max. I think I will get 50 more so I ain't driving 2 hours pulling all that weight for 20 trout that died. He even had ice on hand for me which was a relieve because I ran out door and for got my frozen water bottles. I'm think 3 block ice cubes would be good for the trip back this time.

John, did you see this recent post on transporting trout 4 hours. Perhaps it may help, or he'll tell you how he did his aerator.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=354379#Post354379

These will help:

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/3862/ProLine-Dry-Ammonia-Remover

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2584/ProLine-Defoamer

Use a 0.5% salt solution in the tank water.

That bilge pump agitation system will help a LOT, more so than an aerator for an aquarium, but for the best possible chance of them making it, also run pure O2. You can rent a "pony" tank from any welding supply shop, then use these:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/...ubble-Diffusers

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2462/Oxygen-Flow-Meters

and you will need a regulator to go on the tank and hose. Those will really, really increase your chances of getting the fish there alive.

If you use ice in the water, and it melts, it could be made from city water, which has chlorine or chloramine in it, which the fish don't appreciate......

Thanks esshup. I'll look into that stuff when I get off work. I talked to owner and he said not to buy ice. He would supply good clean ice. He thought one more pump like I had would do the job for now. I wanna get me a good setup going because I no longer trust random fish trucks. I'm going to have to make long trips for HSB, HBG and these RBT every year. I'm getting me six 1 to 2 pound Goldie's and he is refunding all 50 trout from yesterday. I told him I would buy another 50 too. So with the 23 that survived yesterday that will put me at 129 in my quarter acre pond. I hope I ain't pushing it too much with the fish that are already in there.

IMHO:

With only aeration (that's WITH the water conditioners that I listed, plus the salt in the water), I'm not comfortable transporting more than 1/2 pound of trout per gallon of water. With O2, chemicals AND aeration/agitation I've hauled 1# per gallon.

Other people with more fish hauling experience than I have should chime in if I'm pushing the limits. I'm a newbie to hauling fish compared to others here on the forum.

So esshup if I put 100 half pounders and six 2 ponders in that tank. With salt, aeration and 240 gallons of water I should be fine? Correct? FNC I will watch that video when I get home. I did miss that yesterday.

A simple risk evaluation put it that there would be more than usual morts on the trip. Nice of the guy to fix a problem that he was not responsible for.

I'm scared to death about making a trip to the UP. Building a fancy rig and all has been crossed off the list. I'll just rent one from Dan when the time comes.

I'm very surprised too. I even told him it was that crap airstone from walmart that caused them to die and 23 of them in other tote lived. For some reason he feels obligated to replace all 50. What a guy!

I don't think he feels obligated, but is just a nice guy!

Your probably not the first he's dealt with that had a bad rig, and probably would like to see his fish thrive for you. He's just a nice guy.

I would suggest to bring some extra cash with you to cover the fish you killed in your desire and haste excursion. He offered to cover this, but you reciprocate and and admit to your fault. A good way to build a friendship.

Remember, people like this are not Walmart!

Good luck!

Guys,


I've used the ice from convenience stores on the road hauling several times with no problem. Maybe I got lucky but it's possible that it's not a good idea for them to have any chlorine or chloramine residue, as it can effect the taste if the ice is used for anything that is drank? It would be interesting to call a few places and research this.

Keep in mind that block ice is rather large and may damage your fish during transport. Small cubed ice would be much better.

Seems like the block ice lasts longer tho, but Ice is Ice and melts at 32F. 10 lbs of block ice has the same BTU's as 10 lbs of crushed ice or 10 lbs of cubed. I don't think I would use those contained ice freezer gizmos because it is a contained mass that could easily bounce around in the tank and damage the fish. Raw Ice, and let it melt on the trip.

Good point from Cecil on the source of the ice too. If it's derived from a municipal system, could be the nail in the coffin on the next haul.

Mind your P's and Q's, and don't get all OCD about it. Take it easy

Way ahead of you on this one. I know I killed those fish and they are now in my freezer. I will be trying to pay for them but I don't think he will take the money. Maybe a gift card to a eatery or something for the crew would be better accepted.

The guy you dealt with is smart businessman. He knows if he treats you well you will come back and won't even think of going somewhere else. It costs more to regain a customer than it does to keep one. I wish more businesses would be more aware of that.

I think I cost a supplier in Ohio thousands in business. He treated me very poorly and I went out of my way to inform everyone I knew about it. If he only knew how many people I know that were potential customers -- that steer clear of him now.

What's really sad up until my bad experience I was actually drumming up business for him and distributing flyers. Stupidity knows no bounds.

Don't rule out water temp. Cooler water holds more O2. But, if the trout are coming from 65°F water you don't want to chill the water to 45°F with them in it with ice and then put them back in 65° water when you get to the pond. I prefer to keep temps as close as possible, and about 5°F difference is my limit. You might be fine, you might not. Don't forget about ammonia build up. Hopefully the fish will be purged for a couple of days before you pick them up.

The only way to find the limits is to kill fish, unfortunately.

Phil,

It amazing how much ice it takes to drop water temp.

According to the text Recirculating Aquaculture 2nd Ed Timmons and Ebeling page 631, the required mass of ice to drop/change 200 liters (52.8 gallons)of water 10 C. (18 degrees F) is 24 kg (52.9 lbs.).

I found this out the hard way once when I wanted to drop a 300 gallon tank 20 degrees F. to preclude acclimating some fish from a cooler pond. (The plan was to drop the tank water temp to the temperature of the pond they came from and then to just slowly warm it back up after I added the fish). I think I dropped at least eight 20 lb. bags of ice in the tank and still didn't get a 20 degree F. drop.

According to the text to drop/change 100 liters (264.1 gallons) of water 10 C. (18 degrees F.) requires 120 kg. (264.6 lbs.).

Judging by how much ice it takes to drop water temperature 20 F. I wouldn't be concerned tossing in a bag of ice every now and then during stops on the way to the pond. I've done it several times with trout. An easy way to acclimate them at the pond is to slowly pump the pond water through the hauling tank with a sump pump until the tank and pond are the same temperature. I just held the hose down with the tank lid and let it overflow out the gate valve that was partially open.

Off for haul number two. Don't wanna see any morts this time. I learned a lot from first trip and will be hauling twice as many this time. Had a little free time from my little girl to better get my ducks in a row. Gonna have to take it slow and make slow stops. The tote half full will weigh around 1500lbs plus 1500lbs of car hauler. Max pulling weight of 2014 Escape AWD is 3500. I think I will be pulling every bit of that said and done. No electric brakes. Damn I'm crazy. The things people will do for a pond. I hope to have good news midday. The trout that made it on last trip were literally going airborne at feed time last night. It was neat to watch.

Better setup this time.

Just need a bigger pulling rig.

I am always worried about being able to STOP more than going. I have two trailers, one with electric brakes and one without. It's always scary to pull a heavier load with the one that doesn't have brakes.

I'm surprised that your tandem axle trailer doesn't have brakes.

Best wishes for the haul.

It has brakes. I borrowed it. My ride has no hook ups for brakes. Getting ready to add the weight. This should get fun soon.

Good luck, hope to see good pixs of later to day...

I think I see beads of nervous, anticipatory sweat rolling down that Escape.....

Be careful John, good luck!

Haha John you clearly need to buy a brand new F250 for the pond, right? Just ask the Mrs. I'm sure she'll agree.

Looks good and I think you'll be fine.

To show you how much weight is involved with the water I had a trout farmer tell me about stopping quickly when someone pulled out in front of him. He was driving a dual wheel pickup with a tank in the bed. When he stopped the tank smashed its way into the cab and nearly crushed him.

Made it. Zero morts! Pics to come.

Looking forward to it!

Congrats!

Glad you made it!

You should be aware of the fact that they do make electronic brake controllers for most vehicles tho! Fairly easy to self install.

Late to this but if ice is needed I always transport with an extra ice chest full of frozen plastic soda bottles filled with water. I can add one or more and or take them out to control temps without contaminating the water.

http://youtu.be/3GSO-iUpYhQ

Everything went great this time. I tried to snap more pics but they would not hold still. No floaters. Used jumper battery pack to power 300 gal aquarium pump with two 12" air stones.

Video is private. Not gonna join, but glad things went well.

Sorry, should work now. It's not much.

Well done!

Get some of the Goldens they have...The Emmerson trout are amazingly beautiful!!! They are almost always in pristine body condition with no deformities like so many hatchery trout are.

I got six of them in the 1 to 2 pound range. I was going to get all golden ones but they did not have them in 1/2 pound range. They were very nice people and I will be a customer for life. I need to make video of these hogs feeding. This is going to cost me some serious cash in AquaMax.

John,

One of the good things about the bigger trout is you don't have to feed them as much as the smaller ones and as many times per day. I feed about 115 two to two and a half pound brook trout only once per day and go through less than a bag of Aquamax per month during peak water temps.

That will be something to consider next winter Cecil. Thanks. They all cost the same per pound there.

Molly loves helping feed the trout! Heck, I love feeding the trout. I love the V-lines they make feeding. Had two jump out of the water in tandem last night. Coolest fish in pond to watch feed. Wish pond was spring fed so I could have this all year around. Her wows are what it's all about.

Yep! Trout are cool. I spend part of the day Thursday and most of today stocking RBT in clients ponds. The RBT that I had were anywhere between 1# and 1 1/2#. I put 25 in my pond, and a couple of browns too. (for a test) In the last pond stocked, I cycled the feeder, and the trout started hitting the pellets not 20 minutes after being in the pond.

I'm curious at what the recovery rate will be in spring harvest. I'm also wondering if feeding trout all winter is going to create a nutrient overload in pond come spring.

John:

Anytime you feed you are adding nutrients to the pond. I've never made an effort to fish them all out, but when I stocked Goldens and regular colored Rainbows in my pond, in a couple of hours of fishing around the feeder I caught 80% of the Goldens. So, I think that you can catch the majority, if not all of the trout of the pond.

Sweet. Thanks esshup Thats kinda what I figured. When I get into a hole of them on the creek that runs through town it's seems after you catch one the feeding frenzy starts. I've seen days where you can fish for an hour with no bites. When you finally catch one you might catch ten more on ten cast. Complete opposite of how catfish behave from my experience.

A friend of mine put approx 50(he did not count) rainbow trout in his small pond in the spring and he caught 53 in the fall so recovery rates are very high I'm thinking.

Block ice is used to slow the temperature drop rate. Cube ice has such a large surface area that it can kill the fish. The temp can drop so fast with cubed ice, the fish have no time to acclimate. A little dechlorinator is always a good idea with ice, regardless of the water source.

The trout are the most rewarding thing I've stocked so far. Once in pond they are idiot proof and fun to watch feed.

I forgot to mention that there is a bit of math involved

The wife and I have been pondering themes for my daughters birthday party first week of April. We could not agree on anything. Saying that, she would ask my opinion and then say no. Anyway it dawned on me the small pond full of trout. She was on board as soon as I said it. It's going to be a fishing theme. The kids won't forget this party. I can't wait. I need ideas to prevent kids from gut hooking my precious HBG and HSB. I'm thinking barbless strait hook with Berkeley power bait eggs. I will cook up the kids catch too. It should be fun for kids and adults all around. This could become an annual event if all goes well. Most of my family trout fishes so the parents I believe can help out a lot with baiting and setting hooks.

John - Very good idea. Take pictures and notes then have your sweet roommate 'write up' the story and send it to Bob Lusk for a article in PBoss magazine. Title it "Creative Birthday Party". Contact Lusk for his preferred format for submitted articles. For the article when accepted, the editor will send you some money to help purchase the trout or to use as prize money. Often a few golden trout are available as the bonus prize fish for the stocking.

I have 6 golden trout in the pond and 130 RBT.

The pictures won't be a problem. I'm not much a writer though. Wife might be able to write something up. I'll talk to her about it.

That's interesting Rex. I have dumped in the bag ice from gas station/convenience stores for years and never had a problem. All the ice producers I know remove the chlorine/chloromine before making the ice. They have special filters that also make it as clear as possible.

According to the literature I have about adding municipal water to recirculating systems that had chlorine in it, as long as it is 10 percent or less of the volume of the system it's not a problem.

John - the article does not have to be academically written. Just put a rough draft together, tell your story, and Lusk will "clean it up" for publication.

Sweet. We will try to get something together.

The fishing theme party seems like a great idea. Maybe just don't gut the fish in front of the kids.

Cecil, all my concerns and experience is in hauling the fish, which is stressful on them....ANY chlorine or an overly fast change in temps are causes extra stress and increases chances of mortality, be it in an hour, or a week after the stress. I use bag ice also when I must, and I expect problems when I do. I have to make decisions on which stress is more deadly, Higher water temps with lower dissolved oxygen (and higher O2 flow to compensate) on a long haul, or a more rapid temp drop that slows metabolism for lower O2 demand along with increases in dissolved oxygen availability. I also do not have the time or desire to test for chlorine levels, incase a "filter" was malfunctioning, so I treat (my dechlorinator {Prime} also binds free ammonia).

Understood Rex and I'm not questioning your expertise and experience. I know you've hauled a lot of fish probably thousands of more miles than I have. I'm just saying from my experience, I've not had any problems with the ice from convience stores, and don't believe the manufactures use chlorinated or chloromene treated water because no one wants that taste or smell in their ice. Most likely if they do use municipal water they filter it out before they freeze the water.

And as I said with RAS systems according to the texts I've seen, regardless if chlorinated water is added to the system, as long as it is 10 percent or less it's not an issue. The reason I brought that up was even if the ice used is chlorinated it shouldn't be an issue.

It's also amazing how much ice it takes to drop the temp of a tank. I was surprised by this when i needed to drop the temperature of a 200 gallon tank by 20 degrees, to match the temp of fish I was bringing in from a pond. It took a lot of ice! I'll never do that again!

10% of what concentration?

LOL, his math kinda smells like Molson Golden to me - awesome return!

Spontaneous generation!

Any update on these? How are they looking? How much did you feed over the winter? How much did they grow?

Feeding the trout tonight.
http://youtu.be/nCiYWH12KmQ
http://youtu.be/cjXLl_uVQ3Q

Bocomo I've went through about seven 50 pound bags of AM600 so far. It was froze for a month though so I could not feed them. They are doing great. I believe I gained over a pond on them easy. We will find out shortly.

Pretty cool JW well done! A few times watching the video it looked like we were going under - are you standing on a dock, in a boat, or wading?

Bank. I was squatting down to the feed bucket to throw feed. In that first video anyway. Camera was in other hand. Lol!

I am getting scared of waiting till my daughters birthday to harvest trout. Here party is April 5th. My meat thermometer was probing 57 at 4 feet yesterday. What temp should I bee concerned they stop biting and die? Thinking I might have to get them out next week.

You have until the the lower 70's. 57 is still prime water temp for feeding and fishing for trout.

Cool. Thanks Cecil.

Your daughter will be catching lots of trout when April 5th rolls around, John. Long range forecast for our area looks great for them!

John - keep us posted as to how long they survive so others in MO have an idea about trout survival in your area.

Will do. Though this winter could be an exception. Haven't had one like this in a while.

Didn't you get the memo? This is the new "normal"!

Lol! You mean this isn't global warming. Wait I mean climate change. Wait I mean normal.

Dang herons are infesting my pond.

My trout cruise the banks where I feed them, and I often thought that if the herons discover this, I'll be in trouble. I don't notice the RBT doing this in other areas of the pond. Perhaps you could put up a string like CCB1 does in the area of your feeder.

Fat looking trout, that's a shame. What did it weigh/size?

Get some cheap 20 to 30 lb. test mono from Walmart known as Omniflex, and some furring strips from the lumber yard to make the stakes. You don't need many if it's a straight line. Use some dry wall screws to attach the line. Set one line low enough they can't get under it and one or two above that. Basically you want to set this up so they can't wade into the water and it's too deep on the water side to land. I've actually put two parallel staked lines in also when the water is shallow.

Bottle rockets can be persuasive as is a paint ball gun.. Be aware they can show up at night but will show up just about anytime although morning and evening are their favorite feeding times.

I cringed when I saw your photo of the skewered rainbow. Been there done that!

I'm going to have to try this Cecil. The shotgun was working good to scare them and I had my chance dead on with some XX buck. I let him pass on a warning shot. It was just so dang big it took me off guard. You don't see many that big around here. He had to stand 5 tall. Well now he comes at night. He flies away at first sight of spotlight. Prob would not be so mad if he would eat them instead of leaving them to lay. Think it goes after anything that moves and only eats smaller stuff.

Yeah I think it's instinct to jab at anything that moves.

I have a very small pond in my yard and I live next to a large lake so gulls used to clean out the goldfish pond. I strung 2 strings over the pond and they stay away now.

Two notes of personal experience with my put and take RBT pond. Last year with the very cold start and slow warm up of spring we put off our harvest party planned for memorial day until the second week of June. Day time temps had finally reached 80's but night time temps were still cool. Pond temp at about four feet was teasing the 70's at high noon. The trout had begun to show signs of heat stress by reduced feeding and less agressive fight on hook and line so I know we pushed it but the party was a success with all but one harvested. The last one showed up two week later as a floater.

On the note of my local Blue enemy. I had thought I had him scared off good with starter pistol shots within feet of his lounging ugly self. Then one night I the hot peppers on my pizza at dinner got me out of bed unexpectedly at around 3:00am. As I fumbled around towards the fridge for water I was alarmed to realize the motion senseor light on the back patio was on. I grabbed my trusty hole punch concerned at the thought of a human idiot up to no good and began to sneak around the front of the house to the back to find that Big Bule pain in my back side standing on my patio wathcing my pond with intent. Be forewarned they are very cunning and will adjust their air raids to a time when you won't be waiting for them.

Yes herons are very adaptable and cunning. You got that right. And just like people when they find good fishing it's hard to dissuade them.

I know I keep repeating myself, but I believe the staked lines are the way to go as they are nonlethal and work for you 24/7 unlike scaring them away -- because you can't always be there -- as they can come in night while you're asleep. Even when I had a permit to take a couple out a year, one would always take it's place within a couple of weeks.

Thanks Cecil,
I have kept the staked lines in the back of my mind since the first time I had seen you suggest it to another pond owner back when I first had a problem. They will be used this year. I would prefer another method of solving the problem but that would not be legal...

If you can shoot foxes and coyotes for attacking livestock and chickens. Why can't you shoot herons for attacking your fish? Are they endangered. If they are I don't see how. In the river systems around me you will see 5 every mile of river. Last and main question. What is the prime water temp to catch the trout before fishing goes downhill? I know you guys said they would live till 70 bit is that prime to catch them. Thanks

I have personally found that herons make no appreciable effect on my fish population. Have others found something different?

John, they aren't endangered, they are "protected" under the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

As for RBT, I have my best success catching them when the water temps are between 55°F and 68°F providing the O2 levels stay high.

RAH, I agree with your statement, for the overall numbers of fish in a pond. But, for certain species, like the trout that Cecil raises, each fish has a high $$ amount associated with it, so even if the fish lived, it would have a spear mark in it and it would not be marketable for Cecil.

I've had them sit on top of the fish cages and fill their crop. If that happens day after day, there can be some appreciable losses. Same during spawning season. GBH can do a number on the spawning fish.

But not to the extent that Cormorants can do to a pond!!

I've found 6 speared trout that were not cheap.

Out of 130 the percentage is adding up. That's only the ones I know about. I'm sure there is more. This heron stands over 5 foot. It's huge. I was wondering if maybe the water temps were affecting the trouts ability to escape.

What is the temp?

Like Scott said my ponds aren't really recreational ponds. The trout take two years to get them to harvest size and at that time can be worth up to $100.00 each depending on their condition, species, and size.

The trout unlike large bass and bluegill can cruise shallower and be more naive when it comes to the GBH. I've seen the trout dart into water only a few inches deep for a pellet, which makes them very vulnerable.

Additionally the grubs, of which the GBH is part of a cycle can reduce the value of my fish if they are visible.

They're more naive then other species of fish. Basically domesticated and not alarmed by a looming large shape above them as they associate that with getting fed.

The sooner you get the staked lines in tbe better. Should take you a couple of hours tops.

Wow, 5-foot! Try going for a swim and not having THAT in the back of your mind! Man I'm glad the ones at our pond aren't that big. Imagine trying to convince the kids it's ok to go swimming - "Don't worry, kids, there's nothing in there big enough to bite"

Well they are descedents of dinosaurs! LOL

He'd be a lot shorter with his head blown off...

Well daddy ended up having to work 12 hours and the thought of kids and adults enjoying my hard work without supervision made me cringe. I'm going white bass fishing in OK next week. Hope they make it till following week. We will have a heck of fish catching party that week. That sucked. I was looking forward to that.

Molly caught her first fish today. It was all fun and games till that trout got to bank splashing.
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She is yelling "Daddy put Back" pointing at cooler. The trout grew nice over winter. Didn't measure and only caught one but it was over a pound and half IDE say. We will be removing them Earth Day. Can't wait. Trout catching crawdad boil party.