Dugout trout
 

Just wondering how everyone's trout are doing this summer.
I had a bad go with Blue Herons but hopefully that's resolved....finally..
I think that we lost about half our fish, a lot of them found dead with a hole in their back. Many of these were over 2 lbs which pi**es me off. We didn't have a problem for 2 years because the slopes were made pretty vertical when we dug it t prevent this problem, but erosion has built a ledge about a 18 inches below the water surface which gave these bugger a place to work.
Hopefully others have had better luck.
SST

I have heard that herons taste better than trout!:burp:

Find some fake crocodile heads/bodies and float them with loose anchors near the shoreline. If that fails try planting bullrush on the ledges.

Can you get a personal aquaculture license in AB? If you pay the fee, you might be able to get a nuisance bird removal permit! They issue those permits here in Sask, allows you to shoot X number of a certain nuisance species. Probably a long shot, but you never know.

On a more likely note, there are sprinkler heads you can buy that are hooked up to a pump in your dugout. They have motion sensors and will blast the bird or whatever else is checking out your pond.

Only problem is I am sure the Blue Heron is protected.

Coyote decoy will keep em away for good.

So far we got the problem solved we think
 

So far we got the problem solved we think....
The croc head wasn't to good a heron perched on it the very next day obviously they don't know what a croc is here in Alberta....
Tried Pond Blue but that didn't seem to slow them down...
A fellow told me that the Herons don't land in water but on land and walk in which is true as we observed. And if a person surrounds the pond/dugout with a rope or wire or twine about a foot of the ground along the edge they cant walk into the water because they cant step over something...... Well we tried it and Ill be damned, it seems to have worked, none in the water since. Its been a couple of weeks since we've seen on there.
So if you have problems with them it might be the answer... The buggers eat and killed about 100 2 yr old trout....
sst

What is the process like for obtaining a permit to stock a dugout? Easy, hard? Does it take a wile? Any tips for the application process? What are the no no's?

Thx

It's easy. http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$departm.../all/agdex3487

whats required
 

Pretty simple if you have a body of water that is on your property only and is relatively deep over 10 ft, you apply and then an inspector will come out and verify the water body size and location.
Now what is the biggest concern is if the body of water over flows, they want to certain that it will not flow into a creek or a body of water containing native fish.
Actually pretty simple ours was over 35 ft deep and the permit we got was for rainbow, char/brooks, carp.. Which is about all you can have on a recreational type pond here in Alberta. Ours took about 3 weeks to get our License ...

sst

Few years ago we had fish in our pond, I did something similar except i didnt use string i used wire and hooked up an electrice fence! seemed to work till the water dropped way down again. had three rows of wire tilted over the water so it was pretty well impossible for the heron to get in.