Stocking trout

[Robb]

I belong to 1 of 4 camps on an 80acre pond in the Adirondacks, the fishing (brookies & rainbows) seems to have gone down hill in the last few years. The older "powers at be" decided for our $$ it was better to stock more, but smaller trout (5-6"). Before we used to stock 10-12" trout and seemed to catch more and larger fish.

My question is does anyone think the Loon's, Osprey's and Otter's are coming to the all you can eat buffet and cleaning the smaller trout out?

Thanks for any info,
Robb

[Cider]

There is a trout pond in northern NH that I like to fish.  It is stocked quite heavily.  It is also home to about 7 loons on any given day.  The pond isn't very large: 13-14 ft deep at best, maybe 50 acres surface area.

It is stocked with brookies and rainbows from 15" to big 5-7 lb retired breeders.  The loons are terrible!  They will take fish right off your stringer!  They follow your lures through the water waiting for fish to hit.  We had a nice scrappy rainbow hooked up one year and there was a loon hot on its tail!!  That bird was so fast, it was all we could do to reel the fish in fast enough to prevent the loon from getting it!  The bird was about 3-6" behind the fish the entire battle!

The loons will peck at the big 7 lb rainbows until they are dead.  They can't swallow them or eat them, but they do try.  You can walk the edges of the pond and find these big fish floating belly up along the shore with big wounds on them.

Last summer, the state started stocking fingerlings to feed the loons.  Well, that brought in more loons and now you have to constantly release annoyance fish (4-6" trout) nearly every other cast while fishing for the bigger ones.

Loons are sight feeders.  Unlike cormorants, they will dive and chase after fish and swallow it whole in one smooth motion, then it is on to another one.  I would say that the loons are extremely effective fish predators and a big annoyance to a nice trout pond.

[missfishylicious]

I'm suprised you saw so many loons on one small pond there very territorial in Ny usualy just one pair per pond.are you sure they weren't comorants ?

[missfishylicious]

as far as smaller trout being stocked the dec workers know there spreading loon food but it's up to the head guy write to him and voice your opinion just don't think he's going to care

[rainbarrel]

Robb,
You should consider a fisheries consultant, there are a couple in and around the Adirondacks.

You have asked an extremely complex question.  Factors to consider are:
Strain of Brook trout stocked
The fact that Rainbows stocked in the Adirondacks are a waste of time in my opinion
Hot summers concentrating fish on spring holes making them susceptible to predation
Fishing harvest from anglers/poachers
Introduction of other fish species that compete with or prey on brook trout
Baitfish fluctuations
pH fluctuations
Time of year stocked
Your goals in managing the pond
The pond's biological carrying capacity
Natural population variation

There are no easy answers here and often there are strong interactions between these factors. 

[Cider]

are you sure they weren't comorants ?

Yup!  Double crested cormorants are a dark brown grey colored bird (all over) with greenish eyes and yellow bills.  Loons have black feathers on their heads with black bills, red eyes, and a ring of verticle white bands around their neck, white breast feathers and speckled with white on their backs.

The voice of the loon is also very distinct...

[OTIS]

Cormorants are the rats of the water.  They'll eat everything and anything.

[Robb]

Thanks everyone!

 This is a private pond 80acres that's pretty deep (55ft) so the bow's have lots of room to roam, it also has smelt in it for forage. There are differences in opinion of the members that lease the pond and land as to what kind and how many should be stocked.

I'll be fishing there Wed.-Sat. this week so hopefully the fishing will be good, we do have a new harvest log for all 4 camps to keep records of what is caught.

Thanks, Rob

[MickeyFinn]

Rainbarrel hit the nail on the head, remember this also the Native Americans called  Brook Trout The Wanderer if there is an inlet or outlet to that pond they will leave it if the conditions are not right...