Saturday 29 April 2017

Trout planting

     Now that the ice is out of Emerald pond, its time to see how the trout are doing. They seem to be doing well. Happily we have yet to lose any trout over the last 8 years that we know of to winter kill, e.g., not enough oxygen or food. In addition, this year is a spring planting year for brook trout and rainbows, as I normally introduce 40-60 fingerlings every second year. In this way there are always a range of sizes and ages in the pond. The brook trout typically live 5 years, while the rainbows can live to be 7. If I don't harvest them, of course, they eventually die and drop to the bottom, where the turtles visit for gourmet meals, and there will be many. As my local fish hatchery guy and trout farm has gone under, I had to find a new source, which happily I did (Cedar Creek trout farm) near Shawville, Quebec, about 1.5 hours from here. There are no other sources nearby.

Planting trout in the pond begs the question of natural reproduction in the pond. There isn't any. Two reasons for this. First - trout need well aerated and moving water (like a creek) at the right temperature across their eggs for the eggs to mature properly and hatch. Also they need a suitable substrate like gravel to stimulate the mating and egg laying, which also isn't available in the pond. The fertile fish do try mating on the rocky shore if it is underwater in November (fall spawners; genetically determined). Second - many fish farm breeders are now briefly thermally shocking their fertile trout eggs in hatching trays, which renders them sterile after hatching.  In Quebec this is the law. In this way, escaped fish cannot breed in the wild. A great idea really. I used to breed fertile trout and hatch thousands in one of my labs at Carleton University for research and planting, but that's another story.

As you can see below, the fingerlings from the Cedar Creek farm are put into a plastic bag, and then the air is removed and replaced with pure oxygen. This allows them to be transported for 3 or more hours without an oxygen debt, especially if they are kept cold.




As an example of how active they are at this age and size, I add a very brief video taken by Nancy just before the trout were released into the pond. If your audio is on, you will hear noisy the fish can be.





Not all of the fish swim away immediately. Several rest on the bottom for 15-20 min before joining the others in their new home. The new fingerlings will have to provide for themselves, as I only present commercial food to the older fish (3 and 5 year old), and only a couple of times each week in the spring, early summer, and fall. As the pond ages, they find more and more natural food, including nymphs of all kinds (mayflies, caddis flies, etc.), frogs, leeches and minnows (stickleback and dace). All but the dace appeared in the pond spontaneously! Isn't Mother Nature wonderful.

And thus, another successful introduction....




Over time, as the fish grow, they quickly get used to the bi-weekly feeding ritual.  I always start throwing out commercial food pellets from the berm near the middle of the pond and continue as I walk back toward the house and dock. This allows me to sit on the dock and watch the feeding fish as they follow the food trail to the dock, where I can enjoy their revelry.  My daughter Tobi has captured this activity in the 2 min video below.





The manner in which we remove trout from the pond is normally by fly fishing.  It is a real treat to land a 4-pound trout on a 3-weight rod.  Brother Dave is doing just that and his 22-inch rainbow will provide a meal for at least four people.  On this day, several other trout were caught and released.










Of course, to increase the appearance of the fish's size, I had Dave hold the fish a bit closer to the camera. And not to be outdone by this lovely fish, as fisherman are notoriously competitive (and occasionally dishonest in the competition), I must add a 22" rainbow of my own below.




And yes, even in the presence of feeding fish, the water is lovely for swimming, as daughter Jenifer shows while diving into the feeding frenzy from the rocky shore before I built the dock at that location. Note the surface action of the trout, and the one that has cleared the water rushing to grab the floating food pellet.




Subsequently I built the dock on that rocky shelf from which son Jamie and granddaughter Siobhan sail into the pond.






In August, the surface water is about 86-90°F (30°C and warmer), while it is about 70°F on the bottom, where the trout spend most of their time. They do rush to the surface for food, but quickly return to the bottom, since prolonged exposure to 75°F is lethal, let alone 85°F and higher. Note the water level has dropped 4 feet at this time of the year, and in periods of drought, like last summer (2016), it will drop 8 feet. This still leaves 12 feet of water in the deep end, and the trout survive by staying on the bottom, as the ground temperature remains at ~50°F -- thus cooling the deepest water.


Monday 17 April 2017

Pictures of Due North

April 17, 2017
Let's start with my creation of Due North.  In January, 2010, Nancy and I moved into the house we had spent several years designing and building.  This is a good place to begin, as you can then recognize in my post pictures the locations of various activities.  First, the house, as seen from the south flower garden. 





Second, a picture of the ponds we had blasted and dug several years ago. Spring is coming to the north country, as the ice regresses in the overflowing ponds. Note the walkway to the dock is under water.



Its now time for our winter guests to leave the area (and our yard) and head back to their summer ranges, which often are up to 20 miles away.



And the waterfowl start to return. Here is the mated pair of Canada geese hanging out with John Wilcox's lovely 'great blue heron', which guards the pond, but is nearly underwater this time of the year.




At the end of a chilly day, we gather for toddies in front of the fireplace in my 'man cave' 😊. I built the fireplace using granite rocks from brother Dave's property on the shore of Lake Superior, which I cut in half to allow for two pieces from each stone. The stones were all smooth and rounded from rolling around in the lake for 10 thousand years!