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Outdoor Corner: Pond trout fishing 2010

Gene Plihal
for Smoky River Express

Well, it’s been approximately a year since I reported on the pond trout stocking project which I commenced in 2008. The pictures enclosed contrast the size of the trout between those caught from my pond in June of 2009 as opposed to those caught March 1, 2010.

These trout will have been in my pond for two years in May of this year. I stocked about 225 trout at the time and I have learned a few things about the care of the trout pond and catching the wiley fish that I’ll pass along at this time.

First of all, it has been a blast raising these fish. To see them grow and prosper, with a minimum of attention and hassle has been very rewarding. I sometimes go to the pond to watch these fish lazily swim through the dugout waters and it is ver relaxing for me as well.

Contrary to some opinion, these trout do not stink up the water! In fact, Lucienne has observed that the water has been as soft and free of smells as it’s ever been over the past many years. Couple of caveats, however, seem necessary to state: use ponder regularly as you would with a dugout that has no fish. I put in one jug in spring and one in fall before freeze up. Yes, that’s over $250 in chemicals to control smell and such, but you would do it regardless of whether or not there were fish in the pond.

Additionally, the first year that I had the fish I treated the water with Aqua Shade. This changed the water to a light blue colour and prevented the sun’s rays from penetrating the water and therefore arrested algae growth. I didn’t use it last year and the algae prospered.

I would also warn against over feeding the fish. I noticed the fish had a muddy taste when I used too much trout food. A cup a day is enough to give each fish a pellet or two. More than that and it’s expensive and, according to some sources, affects the quality of the meat flavour. According to the party who sold me the fish, the trout will supplement their diet with natural foods found in the water such as bug larva, flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Indeed, I have watched small frogs jumping into the pond only to be immediately devoured by the trout.

I pump the dugout full each spring, though this year that may be more than a challenge using runoff, and it doesn’t seem to affect the fish even though the water was pumped from the ditch. I may be forced to fill my dugout from my auxiliary dugout this year since the promise of runoff is not too great at this point.

Ice fishing these trout is infinitely more fun than shore fishing. For one thing, the trout are smart and see one’s shadow from shore when the water is open. On March 1, I fished through the ice for approximately 30 minutes and caught five nice trout, all of which I returned to the water except for the two shown.

From the schools of fish I have seen swimming, it appears most have survived over the past two years. I have not found any fish dead on the shoreline during my daily feedings when the water is open, nor have I found any fish dead after breakup as a result of winter kill.

I have seen some hawks circling suspiciously over my pond, but, what the heck, if they can catch them more power to them since I have found when the water is open and free of ice they are lots harder to catch through the ice in winter.

I did try stocking 15 of these trout in another pond of mine that isn’t aerated, and I think they bit the proverbial dust (pardon the hardly fitting metaphor) the first winter.

Gene Plihal, with two of the fish he caught from his dugout.

Top: These trout were caught on March 1, 2010, approximately 22 months after they were stocked in my pond. The larger measured just shy of 20 inches and the smaller fish measured nearly 17 inches. They are contrasted with the same hammer and 12 inch crescent wrench used in the 2009 photo. Bottom: Rainbow trout caught on June 10, 2009, measured 16 ¾ inches and weighed 1.4 kilograms and was stocked as a four inch fingerling on May 23, 2008. Here it is compared with a 12 inch crescent wrench and hammer. It was the second fish caught on five casts.