A-aron, welcome to PondBoss from another "trout ponder", over the ridge and down slope from you near Dolores. Sorry to hear your trout didn't make it after you lost the inflow of water.
I keep an aerator going in winter. I purposely have the diffuser placed close enough to shore that open water includes some shallow area near the bank. Last thing I would want to find is an animal or person floundering or worse in the hole out in open, deep water. My trout do just fine without an ice free spot over the deepest part of my pond.
I'd agree with Bill Cody on the diffuser placement for summer. Unless I could come up with some sort of contraption, ramp, float or ladder, climbable mesh, or something else that an animal or kid could use to climb back up onto the ice surface, I personally would not have an open hole in deep water that did not come into the shallows. Maybe you could string the diffusers in a line leading from deep to shallow.
Another thing we do in winter is shovel or plow the snow off some portions of the ice so that algae and other plants can get sunlight for photosynthesis. Do you have vegetation in your pond that could benefit from this?
If you haven't already done so, read wbuffetjr's extensive quest to get his trout to overwinter at 10,000 feet east of us here in Colorado.
Do you ever come down the hill to Durango? We could meet for coffee or whatever.
Roger
