Hi all

My local trout fishery is planning on getting some small rainbows around half a pound and putting them in a small lake they dont use just to see how long it take for them to get bigger, they will be fed so they get enough food.
so i was wondering how long it would take for them to get say around the 2lb mark?

another question is, In the main trout lake they stocked some 4lbers about amonth ago and none have been caught yet, me and others have had them on so know they are in there. So how big would you think they would be next summer if none have been caught and banged on the head?

thanks mitch

If we have a really hard winter like the last one you might not have any left.
It depends on so many variables to be exact, depth of water,temp' food supply, predation etc etc.
Think you will just have to wait and see
ATB
Graham

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Hi Fish4Life

As Maharg states this is an impossible question. I run a fishery and can tell you that 2lb rainbows constantly fed at a trout farm take two years, approximately, to reach that weight. Once introduced to a fishing water they may not put on weight at all unless there is plenty of natural food available and not too many fish compeating for it. In our fishery we have some 1/2lb brownies that have been bred there and taken eight years to reach this weight, as we have limited natural food sources, particularly in winter, when our trout loose weight.

Black Knight

Not knowing much about fisheries why are they going to keep feeding them after they put them in the lake

Purchase the size you want from a fish farm, it will work out cheaper.

Ifor

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Hi
The owner was on about putting some in a small lake that doesnt get used for anything so for feeding them i image that it hasnt got much natural food in there,i really dont know myself.
The reason i asked the question on here as it got me thinking about how long it would take for trout to grow once it left the trout farm.

Thanks for the comments guys

cheers mitch

I doubt there has ever been a UK stillwater rainbow that lived past the age of 4.

You can feed them up to somewhere near 30lb before they die if you really must !

But you need a whole lot of food and allegedly multi spectrum antibiotics which act as a form of growth hormone on the poor things .

Ifor is right - cheaper to buy in .

Best wishes

Steve P

Having caught a stocked rainbow which looked absolutely awful one time, I showed it to the fishery manager. He explained that it wasn't diseased or unwell, it had just been in the lake too long before I had caught it, not enough natural food to sustain it's size/ weight/ condition when stocked.

Talking to another fishery manager elsewhere, he used the term "gone back" to describe fish that get out of condition through not being caught soon enough after stocking.

Both of these were small stillwaters, so I wouldn't hold out too much hope of your half pounders getting bigger in such an environment.

as people have said, it's all down to stock density and the amount of natural food available. A 'Grown on' rainbow doesnt need to be particularly much larger than when he was stocked. grown on usually means an overwintered fish that has regained its condition.

Larger fish tend to 'go back' once stocked. they can't support their weight, so become thin and less conditioned.

your smaller fish should pack on weight because theyre being fed more, but your 4 pounders will probably be 4 pounders if any survive the winter.

A mild winter can be more damaging, as the fish are still active but there is little natural food for them.

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[I]"The fish and I were both stunned and disbelieving to find ourselves connected by a line." William Humphrey in "The Armchair Angler"[/I]