Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Trout question

I have a post going on in another part of the forum trying to gather info on the best approach to establishing some sort of a fishery in a pond that is on the property I'm renting. In the mean time, I was thinking of maybe stocking some trout into it just to have something to fish for. The pond has a surface area of about 7 acres, right now it's probably at 3 to 4 acres. The trout stocked would probably only be able to survive until mid-May or early June, so I was thinking of stocking maybe 200 or so? That's more than I would harvest and eat myself but I'm sure there'd be some natural mortality and I have some friends and family memebers who probably wouldn't mind catching some out. Would this be enough to provide decent fishing or should I go with more or less? I plan on stocking some in the fall to fish for over the winter so I'll probably feed them to see what kind of growth I can get in 2-3 months.

Welcome to Pond Boss.

What you are suggesting certainly will work. How long they will survive into the summer really depends on what part of the state you are in. I'm about 20 miles west of Winchester. My trout survive through May, but I've seen a few that last through June. We had a member here a few years ago, near Harrisonburg, who keeps them year around.

They will need to be fed, but feeding is easy.

Good luck,
Ken

For your pond I don't see why it wouldn't work. With 200 trout catching them out of 4 acres won't be easy, but won't be hard either. It should provide for fairly decent fishing. I like the 100 trout per acre range for put and take fishing to produce faster fishing, but 50 will work. Stick to rainbow trout and if you like you can mix in a few golden morphs for variety.

This will work well, as if what has happened in the past and your whole pond dries up again you're not losing a long term fishery. You can still have your CC, HBG primary fishery for warmer months.

I agree with those guys. I'd stock the 200 just to see how they work, no reason to toss a lot more in there the first year. When you feed, just remember to feed the same time every day at the same spot. A good quality food like AquaMax will help keep them interested in showing up for feeding time.

Thanks for the replies! I have contacted Castaline Trout Farm in Goshen, VA about purchasing some trout from them, I think they're the closest place to me that raises fish and they're about an hour away. Has anyone ever done business with them before? The pricing they quoted me was $1.00 for 8-9 inch fish, $1.20 for 9-10 inches, $1.75 for 10-12 inches, and $2.15/pound for fish over 12 inches for rainbows, add 20 cents to those rates for golden rainbows. They said they have 55 gallon drums that they will loan out with a 100% refundable deposit for transporting fish. Do these prices seem reasonable?

catmandoo - I live in Stuarts Draft, about 10 minutes from Staunton. and close to the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This pond is fed by runoff and has been sitting half full since November so if there isn't a lot of rain this spring I'd be surprised if any make it past mid-May, if we get a lot and it fills up some may live into mid June.

CJBS2003 - If this stocking works out I'll definitely look at a higher stocking rate in the fall. I think I'm looking at a four month survival maximum, probably will be closer to three. Having to spend a little more time fishing to catch them out won't bother me at all I think I will wait until the weather has taken a turn for the warmer to stock the bluegill and channel catfish, probably mid-May or so.

esshup - As far as feeding, how much flexibility would I have with feeding times? I work 6am-6pm for two weeks then the opposite for two, so I wouldn't be able to feed them at the exact same time every day. I could do 7am and feed after I get off when I'm on nights and on days I'm off when working days.(I only work 7 of 14 days) Would missing a couple days here and there be a huge problem? Also, is it better to concentrate all the feed in one spot or is it ok to walk up, say, a stretch of bank throwing it out as you go?

I've done business with Brian of Castaline and was very happy. Prices are reasonable. He used to sell trout to the Whitehouse believe it or not.

I don't know Bryan and his wife very well, but they are fellow members of the West Virginia Aquaculture Association. They are highly regarded, and they are really nice people. The prices you showed are very good. I'd do it.

Also, being in the Stuarts Draft area, you may very well be able to keep the trout through the summer, depending on how long the sun hits your pond each day, and if any significant amount of water is coming from springs. There are a lot of trout raised in your part of VA/WV.

Ken

Those are good prices from what I've seen elsewhere. Go for it. Personally, I would stock mostly 8"-9" fish this time just to see how they do, maybe a few larger trout for fun.

Have you considered the aerator-on-a-thermostat trick for next fall?

The closer you can stay to a consistent schedule the better. Depending on how secure the area is, there are programmable feeders available. Last winter I put 100 RBT/Golden morphs into my pond. They were 10"-12" in size when stocked in late October, and with them being fed daily, they were in the 3# range by April. I have a Stren AquaPro feeder, and I was feeding them about a pound and a quarter of food a day. (Purina AquaMax 600) The trout will disperse through the pond and won't all congregate around the feeder, although a lot will show up for the free food if a consistent schedule is kept.

Cecil Baird1 - Sounds like I'm lucky to have a good hatchery fairly close to me. Cecil, I have seen some of the trout you've raised so if you say he's good, he must be. The White House thing is pretty cool, too.

catmandoo - The pond was built as flood control so it only collects runoff water as far as I know. Here's what could potentially happen if it's a dry spring and summer:



If it's mild and a lot of rain to turn the pond over, a few might make it through the summer but it's not something I expect to happen.

txelen - I think I'm going to do 50 trout of each size category, just for a little variety and I had thought about doing the 8-9" range first to see how they do for a couple of weeks but I may just do them all at once as it hasn't been warm out for quite a while. The pond is probably 6' deep right now, with the potential to get up to 12' when full. You can't really see it well in the pic above but there is about a 250-300 yard long field extending from the upper end of the lake and a 50 yard flat area on the left side of the pic. (Assuming this is the flood plain for the lake.) This keeps a pretty constant breeze going down there and seems to funnel the wind down through the hollow from the inlet end towards the dam. With a good amount of wind and lack of depth, I hadn't thought an aerator would be needed, what would the benefit of running one be?

esshup - That is pretty impressive growth over that period of time! I think for this group, I'll just go with hand feeding and if they do well I'll definitely consider adding a feeder if I stock them in the fall. Did your trout show much growth length wise or more in girth? Do you think an evening or morning feeding time is better? I was thinking morning would be better for when it starts to get warmer in May but if there's not a big difference I may go with an evening feeding time so the wife and daughter could do it when I'm working then.

Whatever feeding time fits your schedule better. Here's one that a buddy caught:


And another one. As you can see, they get long and chunky.

Those are really nice looking fish, not expecting much growth out of the ones I plan on getting this spring but hopefully the fall stocking will give some good results.

Esshup, those are beautiful RBT. I'm amazed that you get them that big in six-seven months. You have any oversummer, or is it a three-season thing?

Growing trout in non-trout locales is really interesting to me. If I had the resources, I'd do some work to figure out how feasible it is to grow trout in midwestern ponds through combining climate adjustment techniques such as running an aerator on a timer, locating ponds on north-facing hillsides, planting deciduous trees around ponds to shade them in the summer, things like that.

I shocked Bing when I stocked his fish...some that went into his pond were around 3 pounds to start...he said he wanted "big" trout...his idea of big was about a pound...I should have asked first!

Nice fishies Scott!

Hey Scot I like the hat. Is that some kind of Tex/Mex cowboy hat?

My first brook trout were from Castaline because I couldn't find anyone in the midwest that could meet my states disease testing importation requirements. I got 30 10 inch brooks one fall and by the next fall one of them was 3 lbs. 4 oz. Fast growing brook trout to say the least.

And just like Catmandoo said Bryan is held in high regard because he's such a good all around guy. Very nice to deal with.

Sadly if I wanted to get more trout from him I couldn't. His testing although it comes out fine doesn't meet my states requirements now. They want him to slaughter more fish even though he takes a large sample.

I can't even get brook trout from another supplier I found in Michigan because he had a positive for IPN in his brown trout. We're sure it was a false positive though as no other fish were ever brought in and he's never tested positive before. So I can't bring in any of his trout for two or three years of negative tests. My state however has planted IPN positive trout saying it wasn't a problem because they fish weren't dying. Can I do that. NO!

That is pretty awesome that you got a 10 inch brook trout over 3 pounds in a year. Bryan's been very helpful with any questions I've had so far, I'm pretty excited about getting to see his operation when I go to pick up the trout. I was hoping to get a small number of brook trout to go with the rainbows and goldens but unfortuantely he won't have any available at stocking size until fall of 2012.

That sounds like quite a mess to jump through to get some brook trout. The fact that the state can still stock infected fish sounds like typical government hypocrisy.

If you make the rules and enforce them I guess you can break them.

I don't know about the hat Cecil, I'll have to ask my buddy.

The trout all died not too long after that pic was taken. So they gained 2+ pounds in 8 months, but 100 trout were fed less than 50#/month during Nov-Feb.

Wow, that's a heck of a conversion rate. They must have been browsing pretty hard on other stuff in the pond. Given that RBT are so heavily insectivore/planktivore even at large sizes, a small fertile pond is probably a real buffet for them as long as the water stays cool.

How does having both Tilapia and Trout work out? Do they end up overlapping much in your pond, or is one mostly dead by the time you stock the other?

Last Spring they overlapped by a short window if I remember correctly. I didn't add trout this Fall, and with the way that the water table dropped, I'm glad that I didn't. In the Fall, the trout and tilapia should only be together in the pond for a week or 2, depending on the weather. I was told to add the trout when surface water temps approached 60°F.

If I can get the water level up (again, depending on mother nature) and I can get an aeration system figured out that will not warm up the lower, colder water, I might be able to keep trout all summer. I now have a boat for the pond, and can take temps in the deepest part of the pond. I might be able to borrow Cecil's O2 meter to check O2 levels down there as well.

Scot,

At the risk of sounding negative I think due to your soil conditions you will be battling the water level issues on and off depending on rainfall forever. Like I said if it was me I'd set up an overflow at a much lower level where your pond is only about 1/10th acre and you can run well water in to keep it at the overflow level. Then stock it with trout and enjoy it. You'll just have to run your well about 6 months of the year. If your water table sucks up some of your pond water that's less overflow you'll have to worry about. If that is at your water table level you shouldn't have to run the well the rest of the year and and can keep the trout year around.

Another option is to put in a lined small trout pond(s) closer to the house, run the well into it and allow it to overflow to the former pond.

I like that idea. Thats the way I am heading due to our soil and water table conditions. Multiple smaller EPDM lined ponds for specific purposes. Liners are expensive. The best price I found for a 50ft x 100ft liner was around 1800.00 plus shipping. Stony Creek (about 18 miles from here) wanted 3K for the same 45mil Firestone Liner.

I personally could not live with a pond that could possibly turn into a little mud puddle. I like to have a degree of control.

I am also looking into geothermal methodologies to get a better degree of control of water temperature, year round, in the smaller lined ponds. What I mean by small is 30ft x 80ft x 8ft deep. I have a lot of work to do yet!

Nice fish Scott!

Thanks JKB. Cecil, I agree that I'll be battling the water level constantly, but this is almost the worst that I've seen, and that's with not running the well since the beginning of November. With running 28 gpm I was able to keep the pond stable at the -40" mark. I believe that if I were to run the amount of water that you do I could keep the pond completely full.

There's another option that I learned from the Porter County NCRS. That's to dig a trench all the way around the pond, down to the groundwater level, which for me would be around the 10' mark. That's where the first layer of clay was found. Then they suggested dropping a heavy visqueen barrier from about 1' below surface soil level down to the groundwater level. Overlapping and sealing the visqueen until it completely encircles the pond. Then backfill the trench.

They said that they had very good success slowing the leakage rate in ponds that were dug in sandy soil. The very large Sugar Maple tree that I didn't want to disturb by doing that was split in half by a windstorm last year, so that's back in the bag of tricks. Instead of using 6 mil visqueen, I would problbly use 45 mil or heavier pond liner.

I've heard about that method. Basically restricting lateral movement of ground water, but it still could go out of the bottom, and have to come up from the bottom. If you are certain on your GWL, then it should act as a containment basin, but it probably only work if you had runoff or rain. Should slow down the leaking, but not stop it. I looked into putting in the Vinyl sea walls to sink the front pond down to the WT, But man that was really expensive. I could buy fish from the store, every day, for the rest of my life, and not make a dent into the cost of that one!

Mike Otto said in an old post, that a liner is the best way to go!