Producing HUGE Trout

[OP-JB]

Jim Roper:

Has your lake got a running water source??

I was once told that if you tip a load of chalk into a stream that supplies a pond, you will create a 'chalk stream' with an eco system in which trout will grow bigger.

Does any officianado reading this have any knowledge of this practice??

You will raise the pH which will be preferable to almost all life.

[Vagabond]

 

Is it something like this you are looking for?

[Jim Roper]

It might be worth a try if you can get to it with some chalk.

I know of a lake near here that was full of brown trout until an estate worker put some carp in.

The water is so dirty now that it's difficult to see anything. A few years ago one person caught 47 brownies in an evening fly session.

It was only fed by a small ditch but the brownies used to spaun up it on a few gravel beds.

 

Perhaps you could tip some chalk in as high up your stream as possible and then some gravel further down for them to spaun in.

I'm sure someone reading this will know the correct size gravel to choose.

Hope this discussion up up to Op -JB's intellectual standards.

 

Jim Roper http://www.searchlineuk.com/FishList.htm

 

welshfisherboy:

the lake has a stream running into it, so yes it has running water

 

[ 31 May 2002, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: Jim Roper ]

[welshfisherboy]

We have had a few problems with algae! no matter what we try it always comes back in the summer,

 

we have tried, Aquaplankton, Barley Straw, and we even emptied the lake, but still where there is weed, there is algae,

would the chalk prefvent algae??

 

or are there other known methods??

[Vagabond]

A few thoughts that might help re gravel beds

 

Best size of gravel is up to 3" diameter, with some smaller pieces to hold the gravel bed together, without upsetting its permeability (ie water must be able to flow THROUGH the gravel)

 

It is important that the gravel is in an "eroding" environment, not a "depositing" one ie, if the gravel is silting up, it is no good as a spawning ground. You can test for an "eroding" gravel bed by putting a small spadeful of silt on it - the current should remove all the silt in a few minutes.

 

Without a bit more information on the nature of your stream, it is difficult to make useful comment. But you could certainly chuck some gravel in and see how the stream sorts it out. If the gravel gets covered with silt, then a few half-dams to deflect and increase the current might help.

 

If you do try to deflect the current to give clean gravel, try to do it so the gravel beds are on the shady side of the stream at midday. That keeps the water temperature down.

 

What sort of rock/soil does the stream flow through ?

 

BTW re calcium content - consider putting a load of chalk in the lake itself, as well as in the stream - there is a very positive tie-up between water hardness and trout growth rates, but of course this is via the food chain consequent on lime-rich waters, not a direct action of calcium on trout.

 

Re the piccy above - the point I was trying to make is that the ultimate size of rainbows depends on what sort you stock in the first place, as well as on subsequent feeding. You can't compete size-wise with triploids however much you feed ordinary diploid rainbows.

[davidP]

If you really want to do things properly then consider getting an expert in for the day to do a full report on your water. It may cost a few hundred quid, but he may also give you a really easy solution that costs peanuts or will at least advise you the best you can do with the money available. That's got to be better than continually spending money based on little more than anecdotal evidence (not intended as an insult to what's been written earlier, but anyone who's managed waters will know what I mean!). Bruno Broughton is perhaps the best known of his breed, but there are others, and even the EA have been known to lend a hand occasionally. Don't go to the EA though if you didn't stock the fish legally in the first place though ie got the Section 30 consent, else they may get a bit snotty!

[Jim Roper]

Perhaps you could do it the natural way and intruduce some prey fish for them to eat. The few rudd we put into my ponds seem to breed like billyo. If you want some, you are welcome to come and catch a few hundred (subject to movement licence of course). Location: WEYMOUTH

 

See you all on September 22nd. http://www.march-info.org

 

Jim Roper

 

www.Searchlineuk.com

[welshfisherboy]

WEYMOUTH is a bit to far out of the way for me!

 

Does anyone know of anywhere in south wales?

[Jim Roper]

Just realised!! Didn't this topic aught to be on the Fly-fishing forum???

 

Jim Roper

[Jim Roper]

Another natural way would be to shoot a few rabbits and hang them up over the water. The maggots will then fall into the water where the fish will, I'm sure, be waiting. Someone, though, once told me that this might encourage botulism. It worked OK for my carp and rudd and they seemed to stay around the same place for years afterwards.

 

Jim Roper