I have a freshly excavated pond:

-spring fed (cold water always flowing in even in summer)
-average depth 4 ft, max depth 8 ft
-remains open without freezing at inflow and outflow (good aeration)
-about 25 yards wide by 20 yards long
-location in the Adirondacks of NY
-zero fish life in it now

1) what would be the best species of trout to stock (fingerlings)?
2) what are 'compatible' trout species to stock?
3) what would be an acceptable number to stock in this size pond?
4) what other considerations are important to establish them?

Thanks,
Rich

Hey neighbor, where are you located?
Probably the best trout to start with would be Rainbows, maybe 6 to 8 inches. Usually it's best to put your forage fish in the first year and give them a chance to spawn, but if your gonna feed the trout you could also put in enough structure to allow the minnows some protection from the trout.
Fathead minnows and golden shiners would be good forage for the trout.
I would also monitor temps. and oxygen during the summer.
In a small pond maybe 20 or 30 trout and a couple pounds each of adult FHM and GSH.

Adirondack Pond - I'm located near Schroon Lake.

Dumb question....is it possible to raise trout without the introduction of forage fish like the minnows or shiners? Or is it a given that that is how it is done :-)

(Don't mind me I'm possessed by this pond project and learning lots)

When you buy trout they are almost always raised soley on pelleted feeds.

Rich, as Bill has stated you could just stock trout and feed them trout pellets and they should grow fine.
I like having forage minnows to give them something to snack on other than bugs and pellets, and I have found that the trout reduce their appetite for pellets quite a bit when there is plenty of natural forage for them.
Luckily there are plenty of suppliers of trout up here so you won't have trouble getting them.

I see your on the eastern adirondacks, I live near Northville, but my pond is up by my cabin near Big Moose lake.

Are you planning on stocking in early spring?

Yep.

Are there any downsides to using forage fish versus pellets? (If not, I may as well add some additional life to my little ecosystem :-)

I still feed the trout pellets but they don't require much.
Fathead minnows get hammered pretty good but I've had good luck with the Golden shiners maintaining a good population.

I don't see any real down side to adding minnows, but some structure like Christmas trees and pallets would really help their survival and spawning chances.
At least with a small pond it's not too hard to control fish population with traps or nets, I use traps to keep my Pumpkinseed population down, even though it's not really a problem.

I'd go with even larger trout than A.P suggested. At least down here, 12-14 inch trout are relatively cheap -- about $2-$3 each. I can only keep trout from October through May, but even in that short period of time, they usually grow a few inches on pellets. I stock a mix of rainbow and golden trout. The golden trout are mutated rainbows, and are just fun to have in the pond since they are so easy to see, especially at feeding time.

If available, brook trout are just plain fun to have, they are incredibly beautiful, and they are as easy to catch. Brown trout are a lot harder to catch, so they aren't quite as popular.

Trout probably will not reproduce in your pond. If they will live through the summer, just plan on adding some each September or October.

Another question....Generally how often do you need to feed them the pellets? Let's assume there is little natural forage. I'm just trying to look forward to when there may be a week or two at a time when I'm not there to feed them.

Last year I stocked Goldens and Rainbows in Oct at roughly 1# each. I had the shallow aerator set in front of the feeder, and I had the feeder set to feed once a day. They grew to almost 4# by the end of May. I stocked Golden shiners and Fatheads in the pond before winter.

Wow esshup,
That's one fat rainbow. Fed once a day? What feed are you using?
I put my trout in late April and they last until first of July. They grow 1-2 inches in about 4 months. I feed a hand full of the hatchery food a day, not sure what brand they use. Other than that, I have a good population of mayflies and other insects with some PS fry.

My growing season is short because of my leak problem. The pond starts to replenish itself in late October to about 4 feet deep, then ices over. Toyed with the idea of stocking brookies through the aeraton hole, but haven't done it yet. In March-April the pond is back to full pool.

Sorry to hijack your thread rt014, I was impressed by the size of esshup, rainbow.

Rich if your going to stock this spring you might want to apply for your fish stocking permit now, you can call the Warrensburg DEC office and they will send you the form, many fish farms won't sell you fish if you don't have a permit, also if your not sure what type of trout you want list all of them on your application, here's the link.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/stockingform.pdf

Here's a list of fish hatcheries in NY, but many of them have gone out of business. You can get Rainbows, Brook, Brown, Golden,and Tiger trout in NY, if you have any trouble locating what you want give me a yell.
http://pond.dnr.cornell.edu/Pond/NYDEC_2007_Private_Hatchery_List.htm

As far as feeding trout you can see how nice and fat Esshup's Rainbows have gotten with pellets and natural forage. My feeder is set to feed in the morning and late afternoon from spring thru fall, but however often you do it try to make sure they consume the amount you feed within about 30 minutes.
You can get fish feeders that will shoot the pellets out from a dock or the shore, or you can use the cheaper game feeders that feed in a circular pattern, but you have to suspend them over the water.

Rainbows are probably the most tolerant of variations in temps, and oxygen, but I'm partial to Brookies and Tiger trout. With good feed and conditions they'll grow at least an inch a month from spring thru fall.



Hey Scruffy, how's your pond doing?

I stocked 100 trout in the pond the end of Oct. '09. I'm using an Aqua Pro ADF-75 feeder, dispersing time set at 1 second. A 50# bag of AM600 lasts 2 months at that feed rate. The feeder was set to throw the feed in the open water that was created by having a Vertex diffuser suspended in 10' of water, at 5' depth. I kept the aerator on 24/7 and the trout didn't seem to mind. They'd jump completely out of the water hitting the floating pellets. The food was 95% (or so) consumed within 20 minutes. I had the feeder set to feed at high noon.

AP,
I'm at half pool. We have about 4 inches of ice covering and the aerator going 24/7. Opened up the aeration pattern and increased the air line size this year. The opening in the ice is twice as large as last year.

My super rainbow is still alive as far as I know. Re-stocked him from his summer home in a 50 gallon tub, in October. What do you think about putting in some brookies through the ice?

Brookies should do fine now, and maybe they will last untill june or july depending on your water problem, but if we have a cool wet summer maybe they'll make it through summer.

Any new plans for your pond leak?

esshup thanks - I guess the mechanical feeder is the only way to go then. Fill it, set it and let it do it's thing once/twice a day. If I see that my inlet isn't freezing up, I could probably get by without an aerator to keep the ice clear. Is it possible for them to winter ok under the ice with only natural forage?....or is supplemental feeding a necessity?

That's a weenie! I grew trout and other species like this in my pond feeding them to satiation only once a day. Aquamax. I hand feed all my fish (high point of the day for me.) Didn't feed them under the ice.

More fish fed to satiation once a day:

These pictures are really feeding my pond addiction....That's all I can say. Some real beauties there.

Rt014,

Trout are really easy to get to large size as long as you have the water quality. Summer temps no higher than 55 yo 65 F., and enough oxygen. They come feed trained so no problems there. If you really want them to get big pellet feeding is the key.

But there is a place for natural fed trout in a pond too, you just plant less fish and don't expect as fast a growth.

I will be draining my pond in the summer when the flow comes to a trickle to repair the dam.

Assuming a mid-summmer 'refill' of the pond (from a cold natural spring)....What would be your strategy and timing for stocking it? (Assuming that I ultimately want Rainbows, Brookies and forage fish).

I will also plan on buying a feeder to supplement with trout pellets. I was reading elsewhere that unless you establish the forage fish in advance (like the year before) they will be gobbled up and your back to no forage fish.

Adirondack Pond - thanks for those links btw.

rt014,
The first year I let the pond winter over. I beagn to see insect life in May and the first stocking took place soon after. I fed them pellets but they wouldn't feed on them. Must have been plenty of insects in the pond.

I haven't stocked any forage fish to date, except PS which at least one was laiden with eggs. I loose at lot of water in July -August and the pond almost goes dry. My stocking is in early April and I try to harvest fish in July. I have an ongoing battle with a water table pond.

Well if you water is cool enough on the refill than you can plant any time. It's possible however if the refill is too slow the water may warm up as you refill the pond and you might have to wait until fall.

Sorry if I missed it but how large is the pond and how deep is it? Also does it have steep sides? Smaller is actually better with a trout pond as it's easier to keep cool as you don't need as much flow.



It's good to establish the forage base especially if they are fatheads and don't have a lot of hiding places and/or breeding material to spawn under.

Makes sense if the trout are depending on all natural forage.

I think it'll be cool enough but am worried about making sure the forage fish get established first. So will try to introduce them as soon as the dam is fixed and it starts filling again. Can I introduce the trout later in the fall? or is 2-3 months not enough time to get the forage fish established?


It's about 20 yards x 25 yards, shallow at one end (avg 2-4') and deeper and steeper on the other end (avg 6-9'). It has pretty good flow of cold spring water out of the side of the mountain....plus runoff after rains and snow melt.


I plan on adding some evergreens into the shallow end to help with the flat head spawning.

Rich, how far down do you have to drain the pond to repair the dam?
If your still gonna have 2 or 3 ft of water you could still stock minnows in the spring and add structure, fatheads and shiners are pretty tough.
Then when the pond is refilled you can decide if you want to stock the trout or wait longer.

Good question....unfortunately another reason for draining the pond besides fixing the dam is to excavate more and bring the one end to the 6-9' avg depth (at least). Not sure I want to put the forage fish in until after all the heavy equipment work is done. If it was a simple matter of only draining and patching that would work...but with the digging I will still probably have to wait until after the repair is done and it begins to settle and refill again.

I have a 1/2 acre pond in northern Michigan which we just finished fishing out our 200 rainbows stocked five years ago. These were all pellet fed at a moderate level and they augmented that with bugs. We had great fishing for 4 years with the last two yielding 5-9 pounders and up to 28" in length. Great fishing on a flyrod. We estimated we fished out approx 70% of the 200 with the other 30% lost to hawks, winter kill, old age etc. Overall a great experience. we are currently planning the next stocking cycle this spring.

Pebaugh -

Would you be willing to share the size at initial stocking?
Did you pellet feed year round?

Thanks

- Russ