Good question. Mostly it is guesswork based on what I saw from the trout last year. Amazingly fast growth on feed, the best I've ever seen. Aggressiveness was part of it, but maybe their digestive system was as well.

Smaller rainbows are probably around 3 or 4 ounces each, so twenty pounds would be 80 to 100 fish. In order to get them to desired size, maybe 16 ounces, and assuming feed conversion rate of 1.4 to 1, that means 105 pounds of feed for 100 fish, about 85 pounds for 80 fish.

Birds and disease will certainly take out some, of course. My forage pond is very small, maybe 1/8 acre, so I can only push it so far before release. Of course, it helps that this will be in the coldest time of the year.

No problem at all with the feed, as I have a TH feeder on site and that much feed would only mean two trips to refill.


7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160