Lake Stocking Advice

[DoePolicyAnalyst]

I recently bought a property that has a large (about 13 acres) 'lake' on it east of Edmonton. The lake was apparently created as a result of quarrying or some type of work where there was equipment digging/drilling that struck an aquifer and "barely got the equipment out before it filled with water" according to the previous landowner. It is also apparently mostly sandy on the bottom, but I haven't confirmed this yet.

I've been out on it drilling a few holes and testing the depth, so far only finding it to be about 5' to 6' deep over most of the lake, though I've only tested about 1/3 of the area. Every hole I've drilled results in quite a bit of freshwater shrimp spilling out all over the ice, which I take as a pretty good sign for potential stocking. There does seem to be quite a bit of dead vegetation and a very slight sulphurous smell in the shallower portions that I've drilled into. There are also a couple of beaver dams and visible signs of muskrat dwellings throughout the lake.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience in stocking a similar body of water. I'm open for any tips or tricks and suggestions on what to try and fingerling supplier recommendations. I'd love to hear your fish stocking stories, good or bad!

[pope]

Check out smoky trout farm. Very knowledgeable

[fish99]

should have 20 feet of water for the fish to over winter ,

[Red Bullets]

Water bodies to have to have certain criteria before you can get a permit. Some info to read.
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/0a28a6b5-91ec-4ead-b9c0-388533fe390c/resource/09f9be55-af21-4177-8f73-0ad5c5055348/download/aep-best-practices-recreational-stocking-of-trout-2020.pdf



The only bad stories I've heard are the fish eating birds cleaning up on small stocked trout. One fellow I know started stocking bigger 2 to 3 lb. trout and the birds didn't get as many.

[DoePolicyAnalyst]

Check out smoky trout farm. Very knowledgeable
Thanks Pope - they are one that I had found online so I will be taking a closer look at them.

[DoePolicyAnalyst]

should have 20 feet of water for the fish to over winter ,

I'm a bit doubtful that the lake will get that deep, unfortunately.

[DoePolicyAnalyst]

Water bodies to have to have certain criteria before you can get a permit. Some info to read.
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/0a28a6b5-91ec-4ead-b9c0-388533fe390c/resource/09f9be55-af21-4177-8f73-0ad5c5055348/download/aep-best-practices-recreational-stocking-of-trout-2020.pdf



The only bad stories I've heard are the fish eating birds cleaning up on small stocked trout. One fellow I know started stocking bigger 2 to 3 lb. trout and the birds didn't get as many.

Thanks for the great resource. Birds may be a problem as the lake is pretty shallow and herons would have an especially easy time picking them off, but maybe the dogs will help chase them away.

[Bhflyfisher]

You'd probably want some sort of aerator by the sounds of it.

Start with small numbers and work your way up. I'd have a look at what the gov stocks lakes of similar size in your area to get a ballpark and then cut that number by half or even 75% because Alberta loves to overstock their lakes.

It kind of depends on what you're going for. Do you want pond pigs or do you want a pile of 12-16" trout that the rest of Alberta seems to offer. I'd go for the former.

[FearNoFish]

Second referral for Smokey River Trout Farm. They can stock your fish and help you develop that pond for success. Ray Menard is your guy. You can find him on LinkedIn and a lot of their great work.

[curtis_rak]

I’d 2nd Smoky. Max is a very knowledgeable guy.

Another good resource - as he is a retired water biologist is Randy from thedugoutdude.ca. He’s from the High Prairie area and knows his stuff with water chemistry and build really affordable solar aeration systems.

But. Before you do all that you should check with the folks at Aquaculture Licensing at Alberta Environment to ensure your body of water qualifies for an license in the first place.

6’ of water is doable but it sounds like it’s very sloughy. Muskrats build houses usually in only a few feet of water and if it smells bad it likely has little to no oxygen. You will need significant aeration for a body of water that size. The really shallow spots will freeze right to the bottom by late winter. That said- drill more holes and try to find some deep water and figure it out from there. If it’s that big start a map of the lake with GPS coords especially when you drill dozens of holes

If it’s really shallow it’s possible that you could drain it with a big pump and redig even a smaller portion of it to get some depth. You’d be surprised how fast you would drain that with a 6”” pump.


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[Reeves1]

Sand & high flowing water ..... I highly doubt you'll be able to deepen it.

[Smoky buck]

Trout won’t do well in winter or the hot days in the summer with those depths. If you want trout for eating you will have a small window where they don’t taste muddy and if you want C&R your trout will never amount to any size do to winter kill. I highly recommend increasing the depth before considering stocking trout. In my opinion you should focus on developing your pond and put thoughts of stocking on hold

In the past I was on of the top 15 producers of rainbow trout in BC for 10years. Set up lots of trout ponds and seen lots of failures from people rushing because they want fish

This is my opinion anyway

[SNAPFisher]

should have 20 feet of water for the fish to over winter ,

This for sure unless you want to stock and then fish it out same year.

Beavers will not allow your bond to thrive. They will dam up any water flow if you have any. They will silt up the pond...likely already until you have what you have - 5-6 FOW and stinky. They dig into the banks and really mess up things. So if you really serious about building a pond that can overwinter fish, you got some work to do! :)