We are in a restricted cutthroat trout area that I think the only trout species we can stock are that and triploid (sterile) rainbows. I assume other sterile salmonoids would be ok, all female Coho salmon sound intriguing. To better utilize the insect base, I'm hoping for mountain whitefish (pretty decent tasting) and to best use the periphyton layer, mountain suckers. To convert the soft vegetative material, as well as to provide an alternate food source, I'm counting on crayfish.

July can be hot, with daytime temperatures in the 90's, but nighttime temps drop into the 50's. I'm counting on aeration mainly at night, which should help keep temperatures down, as well as keeping the amount of shallow water to a minimum. Someone a mile away raises huge rainbows on feed in 1/4 acre ponds 20 feet deep without aeration.

Bill, I appreciate your highlighting the potential for excessive biological oxygen demand. "Hucking of tons of hay" into some containment system may mainly need to be at ice-off, and rely on a significant mass of brush for the end of the season.

My overall point is I wonder if those benefits demonstrated from increasing amount of periphyton (such as that demonstrated by floating islands) can be achieved with biomass, and if there is sufficient ability of a water system to assimilate it, if there is an advantage (especially early in the season, when weedbeds have not yet built up) to having a significant portion of it be soft biomass such as hay. In contrast to a weedbed, which grows all year and then decomposes in the fall/winter, hay put in a pond in April should be long decomposed by fall