Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Mike Robinson have you had an experience with shade cloth for your trout pond(s)

What kind of pond setup do you have for your trout if you don't mind me asking? I would like to compare notes. Do you use earthen ponds? I know last time I was there you did not have trout yet. If you raise your trout outside have you tried using shade cloth to keep temps down in your pond(s)?

I am considering this option this summer. I have no trees to speak for shade, and will be shifting more to raising brook trout in the future that prefer cooler water than the browns and rainbows. My water goes up into the mid 60's in really hot weather during the day (cools back down as the sun goes low), and I would like to keep it below 59.

What are your thoughts on suspending shade cloth above the water level to keep temps down?

I run in 51.6 degree aerated well water (drops though packed column) @ 38 gpms for an 88 by 59 foot by 9 foot deep pond, and it runs through a 4 inch underground pvc pipe before splashing out of an upturned elbow into the pond.

I only grow out fish that are about 1/2 pound and larger and have harvested rainbows up to almost 10 pounds. I'm sure you start out with smaller fish.

Cecil, we start out with eggs in the hatchery, and eventually move them out to 30'x50'x3-4'deep earth pond when they are about 4". Each pond has about 50 gpm flowing through it, so water turns over at least a couple times a day. To decrease water temperature we have been filling in our ponds with #8 stone to make them more shallow, which increases the turn over rate, which in turn decreases the water temperature. I'm sure shade cloth would work, but we have not attempted it because of the pond layouts. We do use it in our 10,000 gallon greenhouse tanks, and it works great to decrease algae growth.

Our ponds peak at about 70F during the hot summer days. We have found that if you suspend feeding before a really hot day, it decreases their stress, and they are better able to handle the high temps. These are Kamloop Rainbows however, not Brook Trout.

Mike,

Thanks for sharing. Interesting about the turnover. In contrast I have a deep pond (relative to surface area), and it drops off rapidly to slow down warming although I do mix with a diffuser.

I estimate my pond has about 100,000 gallons in it, and turn over is about every 2 days although of course not all of the water actually turns over in that time.

I can get away with this due to a low density and larger fish which increases carrying capacity.

I'm hoping to install pvc in ground which can hold a smaller diameter vertical galvanized pipe which in pairs will support the shade cloth on each end of the strip. When I want to remove the shade cloth I should be able to remove the galvanized pipe and roll up the shade cloth. The pvc is at ground level so it does not stick up.

Do you run your overflow into any other ponds? I run my trout overflow into a much larger warmwater pond which cools it slightly in summer and acts as a fertilizer keeping the water green (seechi dish reading about 24 to 36 inches).

Thanks again,

Cecil

Cecil, I'm sure we are at much higher densities. We raise up to 2,000 pounds in a 30'x50' pond. There are 3 of those ponds per series, but we raise smallmouth or something else in the 3rd, because it gets a little too warm in the summer for trout. Currently our run-off goes in a creek, but we are in the process of obtaining permits to build 7 new 1/2 acre ponds that would receive the effluent. We would raise primarily bass & bluegill in those. The master plan is to sheet-flow the effluent from the bass & bluegill ponds into a wetland that we own, and then we would have zero effluent...but that is down the road.