Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species Newly stocked RBT question...

Hello everyone,
I've been trolling this site for a little while and finally registered and would like to introduce myself. I live in Alberta, Canada and have a 3yr old pond that is 12-14' deep and approx. 2000sq/ft surface area that is fed by surface runoff.

A week ago, I stocked 30x 5-7" RBT and 4x Grass Carp in my pond. I started to aerate the pond about 4 or 5 days prior to this stocking and the aerator has been going constantly since. The weather has been cool and rainy the past couple of weeks so I've left the aerator going night and day. Because of the rain, the water is very turbid and visibility is 12" at best.

So far, I haven't noticed much activity in the pond since I've stocked it and the trout are definitely not surface feeding at all. I haven't seen any floaters as of yet.

Is this normal behavior for small sized, newly stocked RBT? Are they hunkered down eating feed that is already in the pond? Are they dead and not showing themselves yet?

Also, of note, the pond has been stocked with RBT in the past, but the previous owner before me never aerated it so it winterkilled every year. Last year no fish were stocked (so I've been told). My plan it to aerate so I can have year round fish...

Any idea what the water temperature is and what your maximum water temp will be for the summer in the entire water column? So it has a history of trout surviving through the summer but not the winter?

I've had trout off feed for as long as two weeks after planting. Keep feeding at the same place at least once daily and they will show up if they are still alive.

I'm not too sure on what my max temps will be as this is a new property that I just moved into a few weeks ago. But I'm going to keep an eye on it. I think I will switch to just late evening/nighttime aeration here in a week once this cold weather breaks.

As far as I've been told, the trout have lived through the summer in the past. Although the previous owner had a Cormorrant problem (which have not come around yet at all)

I've been throwing a handful of feed every evening in hopes of seeing a rise or two. I will keep at it and hopefully they get fired up!

Keep us posted. If you see any cormorants do whatever it takes to make them leave. They will wipe your trout out in a hurry. It's amazing the size and quantity they can eat in one day. Hopefully they haven't already.

Just a little update... in the last 24hrs I have had 3 of my 4 grass carp float to the top...

So far no floater RBT but no surface activity either. So I'm not very optimistic that they will make it.

I stocked 10 days ago now. I figure the 3 carp that died probably died in the first 48hrs of stocking, but I guess its hard to say for sure.

If my RBT are dead, should they be floated by now? or is the worst yet to come in your experiences?

It's hard to say with trout. Many of them at least sink at first. The ones I've lost sink first and them float up a day to three days later. Many never float up.

There was a poster here years ago that planted a pond with rainbows. Never saw any activity all summer and assumed they were dead. Come fall all of a sudden they became active on the surface again.

I put 25 rainbows in my 1/3 ac pond and 3 floated up 2 days later so I thought they were probably all dead. Just a few days ago I started feeding them regularly and to my surprise I can see 7-8 at a time taking feed. This pond is 11feet deep and doesn't have aeration yet as I am still in the construction phase. It is ground fed sandy bottom so it is fairly cool so far this year.

Try feeding just before dark and spend half hour watching for action.

With a pond that small, it sure seems like they would find the feed easy enough. Unless they are deep and the feed is floating. My trout really move around and cover a lot of area cruising. Might contact the place you got the RBT from, and see what they used for feed. The trout might not be used to what you have.

Odd the carp died. Did you ever test the water?
Is there any other forage fish they could be eating?

Also, mine feed best at sunrise. Probably the cool nights perk them up more.

Thx for the replies guys.

No dead fish at all today, hopefully it stops and my trout become more active (assuming they are alive).

I plan on getting a water test done next week. Will be good to know regardless what the makeup of my pond water is.

As for feed, I bought the trout feed from the same place that supplied the fish. They are 5mm floating pellets made by a company call ProForm. I was told by the supplier that my RBT were just in the process of graduating from 4mm to 5mm pellets.

Also, there are no other forage fish in the pond. No minnows of any kind.

Just thought I'd post and update regarding my fish.

Up until a few weeks ago there was no noticeable activity in the pond. I had still be been keeping everything maintained, aerated, adding clarifying bacteria packets regularly etc so I decided so try another small RBT stocking. I went to a different local fish farm and picked up (20) 10" RBT and stocked them.

At this time I switched to aerating only from 7pm-9am and bought a 800gph fountain pump and set it up to splash water on the surface of the pond 24hrs a day. I was starting to get a bit of a greasy algae slick on the surface and the fountain seemed to completely eliminate it over the course of a few days. I had also been trying to faithfully throw food at the same spot of the pond within a 2hr time frame every evening.

Of this 2nd stocking, I lost 5 fish after about 2 days and again wasn't seeing a whole lot of activity.

I persisted with the feeding and miraculously this past weekend I seen a trout rise after a few minutes. Ive been feeding them every night and have been lucky if I seen one fish rise. Tonight I threw some food and literally went and hid behind a tree and after about 2mins I watched the surface of my pond boil with rising trout!!!

I also noticed that not only were the larger sized trout rising, it looked like some smaller ones were as well which would be from the first stocking that I did back in June.

Needless to say I'm extremely happy that things seem to be going well, all of a sudden, in the pond. Although they are very shy of anything near the edge of the pond, they are feeding pretty heavily and things are working like they should as far as I can tell!

That's good news Curtis.

I found in my pond that the feeding schedule needs to be pretty tight. I would say that if I fed a half hour early or later than the "normal" time, they rarely came. That's when I decided it was best to get an automatic feeder because of it being so crucial. Mine were very cautious at first too, but as time went on I could stand right at the bank and they would swim by taking feed a foot of the shoreline without a worry. They are fun to watch!!!

Once they are hitting the feed right away, every time you walk to the pond throw in a quarter to half a handful. In time they will "hear" your footsteps and be waiting for you to feed them in addition to eating the food that is coming from the feeder.

The fish will actually start to congregate around the feeder before it goes off. That's why keeping to a regimented feeding schedule is so important, and it's easiest to do with an automatic directional feeder.

esshup, are you getting more goldies this fall?

Yes, if they are available. So far from the inquiries that I've gotten, I will be doubling the amount stocked from last year.

Let me know if you are going to buzz up.

The weather has been quite cool lately, which is not common for this time of year. Hope it stays like this the rest of the summer.