countrytalkandtips.myfreeforum.org

blowin · Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:17 pm Post subject: fattening up wild brown trout

There is a pond about 40 ft wide and 4 ft deep , fed by a small stream , which has a semi-captive population of wild brownies . They don't get much bigger than 8" long , maybe 1/3rd Lb if you are lucky . This seems to be common in the lakes and rivers around here -- lots of fish but mostly small . I imagine this is due to a lack of natural food .
The pond has been there for years but has no vegetation other than rushes which are creeping in from the sides . I intend to plant water weed etc to get some bugs in there in the summer but meanwhile what do you reckon I could feed to the fish ? Something natural ( def not pellets ) , preferably free and easy to collect Wink

Do they eat tadpoles ?
Grain / seeds ?

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

The only way to get these trout bigger is to remove some of them. Fish size has nothing to do with age and little to do with food intake. A body of water can only support a certain weight of fish. i.e If a pond has 10000 ltrs of water and one fish it may weigh 5 lbs, but if it has five fish then their optimum weight would only be 1 lb each. If you get my drift. Wink

It is all a self regulating ecological ballance and has as much to do with oxygen content of the water as anything else.
_________________
Leave not a trace.

blowin · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:32 am Post subject:

I shall eat a few of them then .

blowin · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:57 am Post subject:

Can't catch the bloomin things but the Herons have thinned them down a bit Evil or Very Mad

.
A " good" size for Brownies around here is not much more than about 8" , more commonly 6" , but there are plenty of them in lakes and streams and they carry spawn so presumably are adult and won't normally grow much bigger . Very tasty tho' ( so I have been told ) .

Have now got a couple in the pond which I guess would be nearer to 3/4 lb . plus a good few somewhat smaller . Suspended a plastic bottle above the water , with flaps cut near the bottom and containing a bit of grass onto which I put surplus meat ( eg chicken remains ) -- flies get in and eventually maggots drop out . The fish love them . Seems to work as long as you can hang the container far enough out to prevent fox or whatever from raiding it .
Interesting to note that a lot of the carrion disappears before it can get fly-blown but containers are still in place . Seems to be these big ( 1") beetles with irredescent backs which eat it . Don't know whether anything eats them in turn . How does the old rhyme go ? " Little fish have bigger fish upon their backs to bite them . Bigger fish have bigger fish , and so ad infinitum " . Something like that .