Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Vertex 4xL5

Now get out there and pop some YP! Post photos, and send some of that chilly air our way in NE - we need some ice!

As some of you know I have been struggling to keep fish in my lake since we moved here in 08. I have never seen any fish under the ice until today!!! 3 rainbow trout have cruised by the camera in an hour. Though they haven't taken my hook I am still very excited to see them.

Harvested my first fish ever(5yrs trying) out of my lake this morning. I put 275 rainbow trout in mid may at 5". I placed a 50 foot gill net at let it sit over night. This morning we pulled out 13 trout average just a about 2 lbs. They are healthy, fat and full of fresh water shrimp with a deep pink/orange flesh. Brining for the smoker!! /[/img]

I pulled one rt out last night that was 20" and weighed 4.5 lbs. I can't find any wr charts for rainbows but I think it will be high on the charts.

A pond/lk 20" rainbow has standard weight of 3.44 which puts the WR of Blair's trout at 130. Nice trout. Setting a gill net under the ice is an good accomplishment. Nice job.

Blair, the standard weight tables for rainbow trout and brook trout will be in the next issue of Pond Boss. If you want copies now, send me an email. David.Willis@sdstate.edu

Thanks for the info. They are in the smoker right now

What to go - that's an absolute hog!

Ready for smoking.
[/img] He doesn't have the Condello technique down but here is the 4.5lb rt [/img]

It's hard to have do the Condello pose with thick mittens on!! (Not that I would know)
Congrats Blair!! When should I expect my smoked trout sample in the mail?

WOW ! Those are so fat/big they don't look like RT ! Nice work ! Is there any forage other than shrimp ? Must be.

Just bugs and shrimp by the billions.

A list of bugs I have seen

Acari water mites
Round worm nematode s
Caddisflies
Dragonfly larvae
Waterboatman
Giant water bug

Well this winter I shut down half of my aeration system thinking it would still be fine. The last 2 days I have seen at least 2 dead trout get plucked out of the melting ice by seagulls. Last winter was more likely to have a fish kill here and they survived with the aeration running full capacity. Next winter it will be running full out again.

Kind of a bummer

Blair:

Two out of how many in there? It could be that they just died of natural causes if you don't see many more. I usually have a half dozen fish croak over the winter no matter what I do.

300
Thanks Scott I am still hopeful. The ice will be off in the next couple of days and that will tell a better story.

Unfortunately, many trout sink after they die, so you might not see a lot of floaters.

The only way to know for sure is to wait until it warms up a bit and fish it. Or, if they were eating pellets last year, feed 'em.