He had a pond dug a little over a year ago and was supposed to be 20’ so we have have trout in there, Niagara Falls area, summers are fairly warm. Just did a depth check and it’s only around 15’ in middle. Trying to come up with a solution to make it deeper, other then emptying it. It’s roughly 150’ around right now. I was thinking of digging a 20’ section beside pond, maybe 75x75 or so and making it 20-25’ deep, and then joining them together. Does a pond usually need to be deep in the middle for trout, or is the side section being deep good enough for the trout? Would also be pretty far away from out dock where we normally fish, would the trout stay only in deep section or make it out near center towards dock also? Suggestions?

What kind of trout? They have different temperature tolerances, with browns (for example) being a bit more heat tolerant than rainbow.

Also, do you plan to aerate? Trout need more oxygen than most freshwater fish.

Nice to see someone else from Ontario here. I'm in the southern Georgian Bay region. It is definitely a little cooler here but I don't think it's a huge difference. I have a one acre pond, 12-14ft deep everywhere. I aerate with two substantial surface aerators. I used to have one but added a second since it was recommended. I've had brown trout for about 4 years without any issue of summer kills or anything like that. I just added rainbows this spring, and they are doing well so far. It will be interesting to see how they make out over the summer.

If you are stocking for the first time, go with browns, since they are more temperature tolerant. They are pretty hard to catch so you need to be a decent angler to catch them sometimes.

The trout will be in an area with good oxygen and cool temperatures. They can be pretty cautious fish so I wouldn't expect them to hand out under a dock like bass or sunfish. Thus, even if they are holding in the middle, you can cast to them or fish out of a boat. I don't bother fishing in my pond in July and August since it is too hot and the trout are hard to catch and vulnerable to the high temperatures. I've been fishing them in the fall and spring and ice fishing them which was fairly challenging but nice to do. If you do stock rainbows they should be much easier to catch.

How have your rainbows made out over summer?