I just thought I'd throw this out there and see if someone has any ideas for me. I have the privlige of having access to a 15 acre brook trout pound in the Newcomb area. It's deepest point is about 45 feet with a good portion of the pond 20+ feet deep. I would say roughly 1/3 would be considered shallows as far as summertime brookies are concerned. It is almost entirely fed by underground springs with just one small stream that amounts to a trickle, but does run year round. The pond is stocked yearly with 500 Fall finglerling temiscamie hybrids, and the pond itself harbors a fair amount of natural reproduction. The p.h. Is almost a perfect 7 and the water is crystal clear with a smooth grassy bottom. Growth seems to be great with the fingerlings showing up at about 8 inches the following spring and almost a foot after being in the pond a whole year. Here's the thing. We are having a heck of a time catching the holdover trout, even in the spring. The pond dosent really get fished that hard. I wish we could have the others that fish it keep a creel count, but we don't. All I know is this, I fished it the last day of the season last year and couldn't keep the 10-12 inchers off my fly, all released, barbless hooks. The next spring, catch the dinks but can't get the holdovers to bite. We got a few this year, they are averaging 16 inches but with no consistincy. No baitfish in the pond by the way. Complete brooktrout monoculture. If these fish are in the pond what could they possibly be feeding on?? The ones I've kept almost always had emty stomachs which is why I surmise the bit. However the smaller trout at times are jam packed full of aquatic bugs. Trust me when I say I know brook trout fishing, but I am just stumped. We used to stock a different strain that Tom Fields at Fernwood Hatchery used to have. He called them Canadian Reds. If we still had those I wouldn't be writing this. We routinely caught big brookies up to 4 pounds, and most averaged 15-16 inches. Any ideas out there?? Any credible biologists wanna come have a look at our pond with me? Seriously... I'm stumped, I'm afraid these trout aren't overwintering well or something.
Jason
Jason
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