So, I was recently out at the trout ponds that I have private access to and bad news. Seems that 2 out of the 3 have had winterkill. These ponds are reasonably deep (20 feet +) and have not winter killed in the past 5 years at least. I knew something was wrong even in April through the ice when I observed a lack of activity. I did catch a couple of nice 3 pounders out of the one pond that the fish survived in and witnessed the males trying to spawn in the shallows. I have some questions about winterkill though. I think this this winter has been a tough one on the stocked trout.
One fish I caught had funny looking swollen red gills that seemed to stick out beyond the gill plates; or the gill plates looked recessed. The other one I caught was normal. Is swollen gills a symptom of oxygen deprevation?
Do winterkilled trout stay on the bottom or do they float up? I have seen them dead on the bottom before, but do they stay there and decompose or do they eventually float up?
Another question unrelated to winterkill. I saw a bunch of male rainbows fighting and chasing each other around on a shallow gravel bed. It looked like they were trying to protect a special spot on that gravel bed. Do stocked rainbows actually go through the spawning process and why can't they reproduce?
Spawning Rainbow
TroutSpawn1.JPG
Trout Winter Kill Questions
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