Fyfer,
I think you could hand feed and that it could help mitigate some of competition the trout experience with the LMB. I have a few ideas you might consider.
You have a range of options, one is to support the brown trout sufficiently to make up for losses of forage to the LMB. Under this scenario you would expect the brown trout to grow similarly to the ones that are already in the pond. Over three years, they grew ~2.5 lbs or a little over 3/4 lbs per year. Excluding mortality, it would take about 120 lbs of feed annually plus maintenance to grow 240 lbs of trout. I don't think you need to supplement this much to make up for competition with LMB. So just keep in mind that the pond will still support some maintenance and growth and that probably all the feed is going to be converted into biomass at about a 2 to 1 ratio. So instead of growing 3 lb trout in three years ... they might exceed 5 lbs and if the numbers remain high could weigh in at over 400 lbs if the feed rate is 120 lbs/year.
Because of this you should keep in mind how that standing weight and additional nutrients could affect water quality and potentially the water's ability to support the trout through summer. Were it me, I might start with a 40 or 50 lb bag and see how your fish (and water) fare on that during the first year. Spread over the days the water is ice free and they are very active, this isn't a very big nutrient load and might allow you to feed two or three times a week instead of daily if that is more convenient. I would keep the feeding quantity between 1/2 and 1 lb per feeding. When it used up your fish should have gained an addition .25 lb than they would have otherwise. This should more than make up for the foods that the LMB will be taking.
At the other end of the spectrum you could "get after it" and feed them as much as they will eat or as much as you want. There is the potential to grow really big trout. Just keep in mind that you would like them to survive from year to year so be careful it is not over done.
Last edited by jpsdad; 10/27/20 09:13 PM.
