Hi everyone,
I know this is a pond forum but the knowledge on here is leaps and bounds better than any other site I’ve found out on the internet so I thought I’d give this a try.

We own 600 acres of land up here in SW Quebec here in Canada. On our property we have a lake that is about 68 acres in size and has a maximum depth of 88 fow. Back in the 50s, this lake used to have Speckled Trout but they are no longer in there. We’ve put fish traps out and can confirm we have tons of minnows (dace, sunfish and yellow perch). I’ve been mapping the lake using my Garmin Fish Finder that is also equipped with Panoptix Live Scope and can confirm that I have encountered over 50 schools of 2-300 4-8” yellow perch.

5 years ago, we decided to put 200 10-12” Speckled Trout and 3000 2-3” Speckled Trout thinking they would survive as they did in the 50s. Nope. That failed. We caught a few the first year but nothing after. Not one fish. That was money thrown out the window.

Now we are ready to try again and we are looking for ideas. Given the YP population is more than settled in the lake, we had ideas of stocking Walleye and/or Black Crappie. Also wouldn’t be against re-stocking some type of trout is someone could explain what happened.

So here’s my question, what would you stock in this lake and why?

Note: This lake also gets about 24” of ice during the winter months and we’d love to ice fish it as well.

Thanks in advance!
D

I am no expert but it makes me wonder what happened to the fish you stocked. With a lake that big it is hard to believe they are all gone. Putting in more fish without knowing is a big gamble. Is there a predator species you may not know is in there, is there a creek or channel or over flow that allowed them to escape? You haven't seen any floaters? I'm assuming you stocked a mix of known males and females. Like I said I'm no pro just some thoughts.

Dirik, welcome to Pond Boss.

Being from Texas, I can’t imagine 2 ft of ice.

Currently on the lake we know of Otters, Beavers, Loons, Cormorans and Cranes. Of those, The worst would be the Otters and the Cormorans for eating the bigger trout. One thing we did as well was stock it in the spring and not in the fall or right before it iced over. If we had to redo it, I would stock in the fall right before it freezes to give them at least a chance to stay clear of the birds. Even some folks up here cut a hole in the winter and stock it once it is iced over. There is an outlet creek but it dries up when the water is low and it dumps into another Smaller lake we have access to and that one is full of Rock Bass and Smallmouth. The landowners there have never told us they caught trout.

thanks for the welcome Dave! Some years we even need an extension on our ice augers cuz it’s thicker than 2 feet. I love ice fishing. You gain access to lakes that don’t have a launch or are harder to get to. Fun times! My kids love it too!

Another Brook Trout guy!! My man! Welcome, I think it's you, me and maybe one other Brook Trout guy on here!

IMO, you need a little more data to make your decisions. It would be really nice to know what the DO levels of the lake are during the middle and end of winter.

I have not had much luck with the brook trout you can buy from the hatchery. They are over-domesticated and have lost a lot in that process. Kind of like the domesticated pheasants they release on farms for pheasant hunts these days. Sure, they grow fast, BUT they don't normally live much past three years and they die very easy. Wild Brook Trout are MUCH hardier. Also, I have had Splake (a brook tout x lake trout cross) survive in my lake when the brook trout died. I am fairly certain the hybrid trout are more hardy than all the other pure trout. So, without knowing anything about the conditions of your water under the ice, and ASSuming maybe low DO took out your brookies, I would say you would probably have a higher chance of survival by stocking some tiger trout and splake.

I would also get someone working on trapping those otters. Seems like I read somewhere that Canadians are already excellent trappers the day they are BORN !