Rainbow Trout Harvest Summary

So, out of 30 fish delivered, this was the end result, with all fish harvested by 3/31/10:

- 1 fish died during/as a result of delivery on 12/4
- 5 fish were 10" or under at time of harvest
- 3 fish were in the 15", 2-3 lb. range
- 5 fish were in the 13-14", 2 lb. range
- Most fish were around 12", 1 lb.
- 6 fish were pregnant females. I didn't keep the roe, as I have no way of raising fry/fingerlings. The roe looked like those little corn on the cobs you get with asian food.

Total number of fish cleaned and ready to eat: 23
Total number of fish under-sized and not worth the effort: 5
Total number of missing/unaccounted for fish: 1 (where the heck could this fish be?!)

All in all, I think this was an extremely successful trial run! I am shocked at how quickly the trout get to marketable size. In only four months, several fish basically doubled in length and probably tripled or quadrupled in weight. I hope I'll have the same success with tilapia this summer!

Update (4/6/10): There are still 2 trout in the pond! So, instead of getting shorted one fish, I've got one extra! Both appear to be around 13" in size. I'm torn - part of me wants to see how long they can make it in > 70 degree water. What if one is a pregnant female? That would be a great way to get trout for next year... But the other part of me just wants to catch them and eat them before they die of heat exhaustion.

Trout fishing!

Well, it's happened a little sooner than I had hoped, but the water temperatures in my tiny little pond have reached the danger point for the trout. With 70's and 80's predicted today through the foreseeable future, I decided it was time to start harvesting the trout.

Even as I made this decision, I saw a trout on the bottom upside down, but when I tried to net it, it swam away - not quite dead.

Due to the fact that I have goldfish and koi in the pond in addition to the trout, I thought that I would try to catch them with a hook and line. I called over the neighbors, and we managed to catch a couple using artificial worms. I had hoped to be able to bait the hook with some of the floating food, but it didn't work out. Too hard when dry, too sloppy to stay on the hook when wet. All in all, it was pretty fun catching the fish, but it wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be. I figured since they were so used to eating anything that landed on the water, they would throw themselves at the hook. However, it seems that genetics and instincts are present, even in "domesticated" trout!

So, after pulling in 3 fish with the hook and line, I went with a net I used to bring fish into my kayak. I was surprised to see that the goldfish and koi seemed much more net-savvy than the trout. I easily caught another 5. 4 fish for the neighbors, 4 for me. There should still be 21 trout in the pond for me to catch.

The biggest fish so far was 15" and at least 2 pounds - maybe more! They range from 10" to 15", with the majority in the 12-13" range. I am blown away by how much they grow!

Quick Update

Weather has warmed up a little, and we had a couple of near 60 degree days. Both the trout and the veggies like things a little warmer than what it had been. Broccoli is still growing. I lost a few, though. Their trunks would sometimes get squishy in the middle in a 2-4 inch section, while everything else looked OK.

I think that if I was able to maintain a temperature inside my "greenhouse" of 30 degrees during those colder nights, I think they would be fine. This little experiment has given me a lot of hope for winter-time aquaponics with an outdoor pond. I don't think it would be too expensive to have a small greenhouse and a little heater of some sort that would be capable of keeping the air temp around 30 degrees. Day time heating on sunny days, would, of course, raise the temps in there greatly. It's just those cold nights and cold/cloudy days where you have to worry.

The trout are still very shy in sight and sound, but it's not a big deal to stand a little bit away and toss the food in from a distance. I've also noticed that, at night, they are afraid of normal flashlights, but seem unconcerned about LED lights. That got me to thinking that it would have been cool to have installed an underwater LED light in my pond for night time. The fish don't seem to notice the light at all. If they do notice it, they certainly don't seem to be afraid of it.

Update on winter

Sorry, no photos today, but I wanted to update on the trout.

First, I need to report that we went through 2-3 weeks of extremely cold weather, with night time temps often below 20 degrees. I didn't lose any fish, but my plants suffered badly. There were whole plants that were basically turned into little vegi-sicles from the water coming out of the pond freezing upon contact with the plant. The upper 2 inches of the clay hydroton was frozen solid like permafrost. The arugula and cilantro took it in stride, but the broccoli was wilting badly. I cut off all the wilted leaves, and with the more moderate temperatures the past week, they seem to be recovering. We'll see. Obviously, this would not happen with a proper greenhouse, especially if it were heated.

Now, back to the trout. I was wrong when I said they don't feed in the cold! It has much more to do with the timing of things, though even this can be inconsistent. I will say that they don't feed as much in the dark (after sunset). But if it's warm, they may feed no matter what time of day it is. Second, I've discovered that they're much more shy of my presence that the koi ever were. If I go anywhere near the pond, they spook and don't really feed much at all. But, if I stand about 10 feet back and lob the food into the pond, they go NUTS! They really attack the pellets, some jumping cleanly out of the water. It's really awesome to watch!

All in all, I really enjoy having the trout in the pond. They are much more fun than the koi at feeding time! There's one fish, though, that insists on sitting in the skimmer, right above the pump. I'm not even sure how he gets in there, 'cause there's a net to trap leaves at the entrance to the skimmer. But, since I often forget to check the skimmer for leaves, he probably spend 2-3 days in there at times, just swimming against the current and waiting for the odd pellet of food to get sucked in!

Underwater Fish Photos

Rainbows and koi and goldfish all seem to be getting along all right. Trout don't feed when it's super cold. On warmer days, though, they are HUNGRY!

Rainbow Trout and a Snow Camp Greenhouse

30 rainbow trout arrived on Friday all in the 6-9" range. A couple of them seemed pretty frazzled from the delivery and introduction into the pond, and I found one dead Sunday morning (tasted delicious!). Other than that, they seem to be doing very well. They haven't been eating all that much, though this morning, they seemed to be quite active, despite the sub-30 degree outside temperatures. I think the timing of feeding may be important with them. On Sunday, I tried feeding them around 9 AM, and there wasn't much interest. This morning, I fed before work at around 6:30, just as the sun was coming up. It's generally a good time to fish, so I guess it makes sense.

In addition, I created what I'm calling a Snow Camp greenhouse (because it is so ghetto!). I just used some extra fencing to create a tunnel shell over the two buckets with taller plants and then draped some 6 mil plastic over the top, tied it all down so it wouldn't blow away, and called it a day. Is it any warmer in there that the outside? Probably not! But, at least it'll keep the hard frost off of the plants (spinach, bok choi, broccoli, cilantro, and arugula). I found some nice tutorials about making a greenhouse on the cheap with a PVC-based tunnel shell and 6 mil plastic, but the 20X100' roll of 6 mil plastic is $90+ just by itself! If I'm gonna spend more than $150 on a greenhouse, I might as well do it right. And since we're hoping to move soon, it just made sense to use what I had around and make the best out of it. Hopefully it's good enough!

Peanuts + Fall update

Well, I pulled up my peanut plants today. I didn't really know if it was the right time or not, but I figure it won't be too much longer before we have our first frost, and I wanted to have them up before then. In any case, we have peanuts! I'm gonna dry them out for a few weeks, so I'll report back on how they taste.

In other news, I have a bunch of green tomatoes on the vine. They are still very green, and I keep hoping that one morning, I'll wake up and they'll start turning. Time is running out!


The broccoli is looking good. I've been battling some caterpillars that really eat up the leaves like crazy. They hit them last spring, as well. I've seen fewer and fewer recently, so maybe I'm winning the war. Or, maybe they are regrouping for another assault.

The bok choi is looking good, but the spinach is kind of hurting. When it sprouted, it looked like grass it was so thick together. I suspect that maybe it was TOO thick, and they choked each other out. Hopefully the strong will survive!


Finally, I'm gonna get some rainbow trout in the pond in November. I hope to grow some cilantro or something in the buckets during this time, but I'm not sure anything will grow with the water as cold as it will be. If all else fails, I'll empty the pond and fill it up periodically to keep the nutrients down. Apparently, the trout don't like water over 70 degrees F, so it may be a struggle to fatten them up enough to eat by next spring.