I have a dugout with some rainbow trout in it.
It's not a big dugout, but, the fish seem to be doing OK so-far.
The max depth is 12 feet. I do have an aerator windmill installed, so they get oxygen when ever the wind blows.
I feed my fish a margarine container of food once or twice a week when the weather is cool.
Once it gets too hot I have had a few fish die off in the past, if I fed them in the heat. I don't do that anymore.
With the dugout being as shallow as it is, they are a bit stressed when it gets hot and the addition of trying to digest a big meal can be too much for them.
When it's hot the trout usually get all they need to eat the from the aquatic life in the dugout.
I do try to feed them once or twice a winter as well.
I just cut a hole in the ice and when the trout food get water logged enough it slowly sinks.
The fish are usually waiting right under the ice to eat the food as it falls.
This is my 2nd batch of trout in this dugout.
My first batch was getting to a fair size 3 - 5 lbs, but, one winter a few years ago I had a muskrat chew through my air hose. Come spring I found all the trout floating belly up.
Now this time I have added sections of steel pipe so no muskrat or beaver will be able chew through this new air hose, plus it's now out of view along the bottom.
My dugout really dropped in depth this year due to the lack of rain, hopefully they will make it through this winter, only time will tell.
WW
