700 Brown Trout fingerlings out of the basement today

[taxid]

Then brown trout I hatched in my basement in December are finally out of the basement and free swimming in the grow out pond. They are running around 4 inches give or take. Now that they are in the outside pond I'm hoping to get about 1.5 inches of growth a month.

Wow I worked my *** off getting the electric fence up to keep the herons out, and the overhead lines to keep the ospreys from diving bombing the fish. Anyway got that done and the fish planted. (Water is a little higher when well is running).

The plan is to cull out about 100 males this fall to keep in that pond and growth them out another year to 4 to 6 pounds. The rest of the fish will be planted into a larger pond on the property for a fee fishing operation in the fall, winter, and spring.

[iceman260]

Very interesting how many usually get lost to predation. Seems like a lot of work goes into rearing those fish.

[taxid]

Very interesting how many usually get lost to predation. Seems like a lot of work goes into rearing those fish.

It is a lot of work! If the fence and lines work I get about 99 percent survival rate.

What made it harder this time was I put the electric fence out over the water so the grass couldn't grow up to contact it. It required a lot of bending over and reaching out to get it done. I felt like an old man trying to do yoga! LOL

I had one young man tell me there is no way he was going to pay $5.00 per pound for trout (never mind they are higher in the grocery store and you don't get to catch them fresh) when I did my last fee fishing set up. He said he could go out a catch them for free. I explained to him the trout he caught in public waters were NOT free as he had to buy a fishing license and trout stamp, fuel to get to the stream, and all the fishing tackle he was invested in. And that I had overhead I wanted to at least recoup. What worked against me was the size of the fish that year were quite large (5 to 8 pound steelhead) so it did add up at $5.00 per pound. But I did have anglers that didn't bat an eye at the price including a local chef.

[BBLoon]

Wow!! That is an amazing setup you have. Wishing you continued success with your project.

[taxid]

Thanks!  A lot of trial and error.  Lots of stuff figured out on my own, or built myself because I couldn't afford anything off the shelf.

2 year old male brown from a few years ago. I should get better and lighter color this time around by harvesting them a little earlier and adding astaxathin to their diet.

[taxid]

Very interesting how many usually get lost to predation. Seems like a lot of work goes into rearing those fish.

I think survival in the wild is only 1 to 5 percent?

[BBLoon]

Thanks!  A lot of trial and error.  Lots of stuff figured out on my own, or built myself because I couldn't afford anything off the shelf.

2 year old male brown from a few years ago. I should get better and lighter color this time around by harvesting them a little earlier and adding astaxathin to their diet.

I had to look up asaxathin to understand why you would use it as a supplement for color. Sounds like I should take some, too! 😁

[taxid]

I had to look up asaxathin to understand why you would use it as a supplement for color. Sounds like I should take some, too! 😁

Yeah it's also a health food additive.