Help - trout food and other questions

[Big Fly]

Hi everyone. This is my first post, although I was lurking around for some time. I mostly fly fish and strongly prefer trout (mainly for
taste, I guess). Well, I am not going to ask you about where to fish
for trout in Ottawa area. It looks like lips are kept pretty tight
about trout spots. I tried a number of stocked lakes in Calabougie
area mentioned in various posts and overall it looks OK. I didn't catch
anything big, but hey! I was not scunked yet.
Now I have a few questions. The lakes I visited so far were pretty small
(10-25 acres) and quite deep (60-100') with pretty steep drop-offs and limited shallows. All the lakes have minnows in enormous numbers, and
I would expect them to be the main food. But all the trout I cought were packed with either midges (earlier in the season) or daphnia (now). Is it normal for these lakes that trout prefer daphnia to minnows? My other question is how big the trout grow in those lakes? So far I had plenty of 10-14" and a few 16-17". Should I expect something bigger or that was as good as it gets?
Cheers,
BF

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[Mike Lennox]

i wont say that its at good as you will ever get, but i have to say close. It is very rare to find brookies or bows more than 22 inches. I always have success on black and white clouser"size 6", olive/black woolies and zonker minnnows. Never over look a hares ear either!
p.s. if u need some spots ill give u pm
-yung

[Todd B.]

Big Fly,

There is also a big Damsel Fly hatch on many of the lakes up there as well. From my notes Limestone L. also has scuds.

Todd

[ganman]

If you're catching trout consistantly from 10"-14" and a few over that size then you are doing very well for an eastern Ontario trout pond.

Better trout lakes have large areas shallower than @15 ft. This zone is called the littoral (sp?) zone. It is the zone that sunlight can penetrate into an average trout lake. It is where most of the food is. Of course with trout you have temperature and oxygen concerns so these factors have to be in balance. With our temperate climate and shield country granite most ponds you find around here are quite deep with narrow littoral zones.

If you dig deep enough on the net you can access surveys of stocked trout lakes dating back to the 70's when the MNR had a real budget. I read most of them and one thing's apparent. Either the MNR was pretty bad at netting trout or else most ponds hold suprisingly few trout, especially larger trout. Perhaps they (MNR) weren't very good at it but if dragging a 100 foot net around on a 30 acre lake only yields a handful of trout but a bunch of stunted pumpkinseeds, rockys, suckers and perch (lots of stunted perch) then I'm of the opinion the population densities of trout aren't that great. I fished most of those lakes back then and my angling experience concurs with the surveys. Of course these surveys are 25-30 years old but with budget cuts and less stocking I'm inclined to believe the situation is no better.

Look at the angler reports here on Fish Hawk. You see a few fish caught. Some 10"-14" and the odd oversized monster but nobody really gets alot of them.

Again I'm talking about a typical Canadian Shield/Frontenac Axis stocked trout pond that you'll find in eastern Ontario from Frontenac Park in the south and northward to Renfrew County. There are a few exceptions. One of those exceptions gets mentioned quite a bit here.

If a trout is lucky and makes it beyond 16" or so it is served a banquet each spring of hundreds of fresh naive stockers. It is said that on average about 10% of stocked trout make beyond the first year. Those numbers can vary a great deal from lake to lake but nontheless mortality is high. Anglers get quite a few, maybe some birds or otters, mink etc. I bet the odd oversized cannibal trout does ok too.

[Big Fly]

Thanks for your replies guys. I still don't get it why would trout munch on daphnia when there is plenty of larger things around. I see very few
dragons, damsels and minnows in their stomaches. Maybe it's just spring
thing?
I tend to agree with ganman: the numbers of trout in the lakes seem to be not that great. Is it true that the survival rate is so low for stocked
trout? 10% SR leaves only 200 to 300 fish for 40-60 acres lake. Not too
many by any standard.

[ganman]

Compared to bass or heavens forbid carp....trout are a primitive fish. Yes I know that will be hard for some to stomach.

Anyway they have been programed to take advantage of whatever food source is most abundant. I assume when you refer to daphnia you are talking about freshwater shrimp. Water fleas are also daphnia. They are crustaceans that feed on plankton and algae. It may be that a trout expends far less calories inhaling dozens of shrimp than chasing down baitfish.

They may not attain as large a size but one thing is certain, trout that eat crustaceans are nicer colored and better eating than ones with a baitfish diet.

[Big Fly]

ganman,
When I refer to daphnia I am talking about daphnia (water fleas), not freshwater shrimp. So far I have not seen shrimps in the stomach samples, although Hyalella scuds seem to be pretty common around here.

[Jeremy Parker]

I don't know what all the big dicusion is about he simply asked why they were stuffed with daphnia. Easy for fish to catch and a lots of them. The fish size you are catching is great and for stocked fish you should not expect much bigger .

Sounds like you are really doing well !

God Bless,
Jeremy

[Big Fly]

Thanks for your replies Jeremy and ganman,
I guess you are right: fish eat the daphnia just because it is there and in huge numbers. That is something I have never seen before. Good thing they are not fixed on daphnia otherwise it would make real difficult to find flies in 1/32" size.

[ganman]

Jeremy Parker said...." I don't know what all the big dicusion is about he simply asked why they were stuffed with daphnia".

Isn't it called a "discussion board"? Was there something particular you didn't like? At least something was discussed better than nothing. [/quote]

[Jeremy Parker]

Easy Ganman , just having some fun!!!!

Jeremy