Fyfer,
You have already gotten advice from experts far more knowledgeable than I, but no one has talked about the strength and direction of your prevailing winds.
Is your aerator location "upwind" from the bulk of your pond? Water ice can sometimes have strange crystallization manifestations. Is there a chance that you are making a little bit of slush with entrained air bubbles at the aerator and the wind is pushing it around the rest of the pond? That could be preventing the formation of your solid "skating" ice.
You might be able to change the location of your aerator, with the result being DO for your trout AND solid ice for human recreation.
Thanks for the reply. Our winds do change a lot but I would say the prevailing winds would push any slush produced in part by the aerator towards the shore, so I assume that is not bad for ice formation. However, our ice would usually be solid by now and thus if the aerator was turned off briefly I assume that it wouldn't matter where new slush was pushed? Thanks again.
