Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Pond owner in Nova Scotia

I've been reading your forum for awhile now, thought I'd join with a few questions I have about my pond. I found your forum while searching for information on pond spillways. My pond goal is "fishing recreation", specifically brook trout. My pond is bottom and surface spring fed, it was approximately 30yrs old and was filling in with reeds and grass...I had it dug out last week. It filled back up in about 5 days. It is now about 8 - 10 feet deep, fairly steep banks, heavy clay soil. Not a very big pond, roughly 55' long by 40' wide (2200sqft). I'm using a small rip-rap spillway for overflow. The surface spring end remains open year round, it gurgles so I'm assuming it will feed the pond oxygen. My main questions are:

1. Suggestions for bank stabilization grasses in clay soil in a northern climate (similar to Maine USA).
2. Advice on trout survival under a frozen pond. Personal experience advice would be great.

Thanks!

Welcome to the posting portions of the forum Redspruce!!!

Is there any way to add aeration to your pond? Air tubing is pretty cheap and can be run LONG distances from the power supply. Aeration would end your concerns of winter survival also.

I would be concerned most with the oxygen since springs, like wells are often devoid of oxygen and can be high in nitrogen.

Since I can get nothing to grow in my clay soils, I have no suggestions to offer there.

Thanks Rainman, I'll look into the aeration tubing next fall (going to get my trout in the spring). I love the clay soil for holding the pond...hopefully I'll find something to grow in it.

One thing that might help is keeping the snow off of the ice where you can during the winter.

Welcome to Pond Boss!!!!!!!!!

Welcome aboard Red Spruce! Beautiful country up there, and I envy your ability to have brook trout in your pond naturally without worrying about the pond warming up too much in the summer. Down here in northern Indiana, USA, I had to run bore hole water in 24/7, at 45 gallons per minute in the summer, to keep the pond cool enough for my 55 by 89 foot pond that was about 8 or 9 feet deep. Of course I had up to 500 lbs. of trout in there so I needed to do some serious exchanging of water!

Here's a few pics of some trout I produced in my steep sided pond. The brook trout was my biggest at 6 lbs. 4 oz. held by a gentlemen, which, along with his buddy, generously donated $500.00 to a trout club I belonged to to have the privilege of trout fishing in the pond that day. The brown trout was just under 12 lbs., which my neighbor is holding. He had to get off his lawnmower to scoop it up for me with the landing net. My biggest rainbow was 9 lbs. 9 oz., which is also pictured below with another brown trout.

Here's the 6 lb. 4 oz. brook. Note the crappy dorsal fin. This fish was a stunted fish in a raceway for two years before I got it at only about 6 inches in length. This was due to 45 F. water at the close to Lake Superior location. Once it got into my warmer water it exploded in growth and was this size in two more years. So it's a four year old fish.









As far as your questions:

Clay soil can be difficult to seed. I would either add just stone, or if you want grass, wet it down good, put your seed on top, and put something on top of that to stop erosion and the seed washing in until the grass gets going. I used burlap that comes in 6 foot wide rolls by 100 foot long from a company here in the US called Dayton Burlap here:

http://daybag.com/info/locations.html

Looks like they have an office in Connecticut, USA which is closer than their main headquarters in Ohio, USA. The grass comes right up through the burlap, and by the time the burlap rots the grass is doing well.

I believe it was about $100.00 a roll but the shipping into Canada might be a deal breaker. Straw or hay works but you have to keep it wet to stay down. Perhaps it's wet enough up there for that to happen? I think in your region stone may be your best and cheapest option. Don't be surprised if grass comes up in the stone but that's easy to remedy if you don't want that.


As far as trout survival under the ice, I didn't have any problems with my pond even though I shut off the well in November and didn't crank it up until last spring. If your spring flow is enough to keep some ice open you shouldn't have any problems. If you get a lot of snow, however, with little open ice you may want to invest in a small diaphragm compressor and air stone or membrane diffuser, and set it close to shore to keep some ice open. Rainman's soaker hose idea works too.

Be aware that just because your spring "gurgles" that doesn't mean it has plenty of oxygen as Rainman says. It may be just fine but you could also rig it to drop over some stones to aerate it a little. With my well water I piped it up several feed above ground and dropped it through plastic five gallon buckets filled with plastic media before entering the pond. That aerated it and blew off gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide. If your spring source is shallow that may not be an issue.

Here's what I did with the borehole water. Doubtful you would have to do it with your pond.



The closest pond is my trout pond. Actually was. I am taking a break from the trout and seriously considering growing them out in a recirculating aquaculture system in a pole barn next year. Uses much less borehole water and a lot more control.




Here's one I mounted out of the pond (I'm a taxidermist). This particular fish was a Lake Nipigon, Canada strain.



Here's my favorite brook trout pic out of the pond. Once I used a color enhancement feed the colors really exploded on the brook trout!

But with his springs it might not be safe to get on the ice!

Agreed. I should have been more clear; it was what I meant when I said "where you can."

Cecil, thanks for the excellent reply to my post. I can't believe the size of those trout...they are huge! I'm use to fishing the wild brookies in local brooks and still waters, you'd be lucky to get a fish around 1.5 lbs. The sea-run trout get pretty big, but I've never caught one of them.

I think I'm going to take your advise about the seed and hay. I've got lots of hay at my disposal. Our springs can be pretty wet so hopefully the seed will germinate before the hay blows away, also might get some bonus grasses from hay seed.

Sunil's suggestion to move the snow off the ice is something that I've done in the past just for skating purposes. No reason I can't do it for my trout. It's not unusual to get a week or two of -4 to - 13 Fahrenheit so the area of the pond frozen is really frozen, the open area is fairly small.

I'd like to avoid running an aeration unit to the pond so I think I'll have a closer look at the spring and see if I can jam some rocks into its channel and create a few more drops.

Thanks for being so helpful, I truly appreciate your advice.

You're welcome Redspruce. Keep in mind trout will grow pretty large if you feed them. It's not really that difficult or expensive.

Sorry I was speed reading again!

I wonder if it would work if the soaker hose was put in the spring water where it entered the pond? Would enough O2 be transferred?

Cecil, I'd be thrilled if you would re-paint the brookie with the colors of the one that is labeled #3. (If possible, of course)

You get your computer back?

I don't think the soaker hose would transfer much oxygen. Too short of contact time.

Can do Scot on the painting.

Nope, no computer back after three weeks. Computer shop still doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry after I made two calls. If I could I'd get an Apple and screw these viruses. It'd be cheaper in the long run.