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Here's a few trout I took out of the pond today. It's getting close to major hook and line harvest time and the brooks are coloring up nicely with the color enhancing feed from Aquamax.

2 lbs. 13 oz. 16 7/8 inches




2 lbs. 12 oz. 17 1/4 inches



20 1/2 inches 5 lbs. 4 3/4 oz.



If I would have been able to separate the brooks from the browns the brooks would probably have been larger.

Beautiful fish as always Cecil. Are the 2 brooks from different strains? The color looks different & one's tail is forked while the other isn't.

"the color enhancing feed from Aquamax"
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Cecil, can you elaborate on this. Is it Koi food? Ric's right. Beautiful fish!

Wow, those are beautiful trout, Cecil!

Nice fins on them, too. (That's a big issue I have with State-raised and stocked hatchery trout -- their fins are always in such bad shape.)

You're quite right about chara. It's been an unusually heavy year for it in my pond. And I started my "control" efforts early, with a granular Cutrine. I also use a about a quart of pond dye every 10 days or so -- yes, it does get expensive; but it seems to help. (The dye makes the WV "golden" trout look white in the water ... people always ask: "What are those white fish!?")

Unfortunately, I was away on travel for almost three weeks in July, and the person looking after my place forgot the dye treatment. Chara galore when I got back. So, I've been doing a lot of raking for the past three weeks. I'm putting it all in an open mulch/compost pile -- but I don't think it will be of very much value as a mulch or garden soil conditioner.

I'm also getting a bit a filamentous coming in after the chara, but it is fairly easy to spot treat.

Also started using some commercial brands of septic tank bacteria/enzymes. They seem to help just a little ... but I'm also a bit of a skeptic.

Once again, really great looking trout. Thanks for sharing those pictures!

-- Mike

No Ric same strain. Lake Nipigon strain. However I'm not so sure it wasn't lighting that made the difference or how long they had been expired before I took the pic. One pic was taken in brighter light than the other. One thing that puzzles me is even with an excellent digital camera they never seem to capture the full intensity of the red/orange on the lower flanks.

I throw them in a cooler with a little bleach mixed into the water to kill them quickly so they won't thrash around and do damage to themselves. Sometimes they stay in there a little longer than I want when I am taking statistics of the previous fish.

Found out about it from Dr. Mark Griffith or Griffin? of Aquamax at the convention. (Aquamax grower AX 5D19.)

I was able to order it through my Aquamax dealer just like the other feed as soon as I got home. It has an ingredient known as "astaxanthin" added to the feed, which is primarily used for trout growers to give the trout flesh a red color, which makes it look more appealing at the fish counter and on the plate. (Mimics wild caught trout and salmon flesh that naturally have carotin in their diets from micro and macro crusteaceans and organisms that feed on those crusteaceans.

According to Dr. Griffith it also enhances the reds on the outside of brook trout and I have been told this by other growers.

Anyway the cost was only a couple of bucks more a bag (if my memory serves me correct) and the pellet size is in between a 5D05 and a 5D06. Supposed to take about 90 days to have full effect, but I have been feeding it since mid July and I already notice a difference the outside. Of course I probably overfeed my fish so that may have something to do with the faster effect.

Thanks Cecil. Wonder what it would do down here on LMB and BG, light colored due to water clearity? I cannot get those black ones, (BG) Bob posted pics of out of my mind. I thought they were too cool!
Again, the belly on your first pic and color on second are beautiful.Reminds me of childhood summers in Creede Colorado.
I miss trout fishing.
The "crusteaceans" aspect might make it a choice if trying to train some RES?

I fed this kind of feed a few years ago to my largemouths (from a Canadian supplier) and did not notice any difference in color even after months of feeding. Outside or inside.

Those are some great looking trout Cecil, how old were they?

Mike, what brand of bacteria are you using?, I started using it 2 weeks ago, but it's too early to tell if it's reducing the bottom muck. I used a pound, and got it from flush-it here in N.Y.

The browns I got in the spring of 07 at six to eight inches at a year + old. So they are now 3 years old. The brooks I got in the fall of 06 at the same size but they were stunted due to cold water (hatchery ground water near Lake Superior is only 45 degrees year around) and they were 2 years old. So they are now 4 years old.

Both fish come from northern Wisconsin sources (Original brook broodstock Lake Nipigon, Ontario Canada) where the water is colder than mine. When they get into my water which runs in the low sixties in the summer they explode in growth.

I will be getting an Eastern X Lake Nipigon cross in the future from Michigan that are not stunted. I should be able to grow larger brook trout. The brook trout seem to start dying off at about 4 years of age and my thinking is if they are larger at 2 years of age they will be larger at 4 years of age.

Even though the brooks were stunted I have grown out 5 pounders in two years after they were planted at six to eight inch 2 years olds and once even got to 6 lbs. 4 oz. However this was when there were only brooks in the pond vs the mix of browns and brooks. Browns are more aggressive and stress brook trout especially if the brook trout are smaller.

Brooks age 2 -- six to eight inches

Brooks age 3 -- 12 to 14 inches
(average -- some bigger some smaller)

Brooks age 4 -- 16 to 18 inches
(average -- some bigger some smaller)

Browns age 1 -- 6 to 8 inches

Browns age 2 -- 13 to 16 inches

Browns age 3 -- 18 to 21 inches

I tried the bacteria once and I'm skeptical. Bill Cody did a study on bacteria which he presented at the Pond Boss convention, and didn't see any results. He had more luck raking the bottom of a section of a pond and exposing it to oxygen.

Larry --

I have used Rid-ex and Zep -- because they're pretty inexpensive. I just tried one that comes in water-soluble bags, a product called Septi-Pack.

Raking is still probably the best way to deal with chara. But it is very heavy stuff indeed, and I'm no kid anymore. I rake it when it gets heavy near shore, and when it becomes emergent out in the pond. When it hits the surface, it tends to turn white (sun burn, I guess) and die.

I'll try to post a picture or two in the next few days showing my "progress" in the chara battles of '08.

One thing I did note earlier in the summer: some (but not all) of the chara I raked in had plenty of damsel fly nymphs in it. So, since it seems to be good bug habitat, I usually only rake when it gets to be a problem.

Answering one of your earlier questions, I don't know for sure if the goldens have been more prone to predators than the regular rainbows. Kind of seems like they would. I've had only one osprey visit this year, that I know off; and it appeared to go home "empty-handed." My big predation woe is great blue herons, especially in winter. -- Mike

Mike,
Last year i put in a pound of rid-x, but it didn't have any effect.
According to lab tests the flush-it has 8 times more bacteria than zep enforcer per gram, but 1500 times more than rid-x. I paid $65.00 for a pound of flush-it, so the zep enforcer might not be too far off in value if it's under 10 bucks a pound, but the rid-x doesn't seem to be worth it.
Of course thats if the lab data is correct, they have it on their web site.
I haven't seen any osprey around here, when i lived in Virginia we would see them alot on Green mt. lake.
Good luck with the chara, I'd like to see pictures of your pond.
lARRY

Another brown out of the pond a guest caught:



This brook has some nice color although a brown must have taken some bites out of his tail.



This female was eating too much!