how big do trout get in ponds?

[snipersam]

I have this privately stocked pond to fish in, its a 30 year old farm pond that was stocked 3 or 4 years ago. Put in 1200 4 inch the first year and just a couple 100 since each spring. the pond is about 60-70 yards square and 11-12 feet deep depending on the year. last winter I caught a 16 inch trout. it was the biggest by far we had caught, only fished it once this winter and they have defiantly grown since last year. the average fish was bigger, we kept 10 keepers the biggest I caught on a small jig and a piece of shrimp, it was 17 inches.  my question is how big can we expect them to grow? they have a lot of natural food in the pond, minnows, crawfish, bug hatches all summer, plus we feed them.

[Fishgod]

If there is proper temperature, food, dissolved oygen then they can get pretty big. There was a pond in Montana that was about the same size as the one you are fishing and we caught rainbows and brown trout 15+ pounds. Of course, it will take some years to grow fish this big. Keeping and killing them will not help the situation.

[BIGJim223]

I had a small spring fed pond, maybe 3/4 acre. Put 6" rainbows in it. A lot of natural feed but I fed them trout chow too.
Was told by the fish farm that rainbows usually live 6 years or so, and that I should plan on fishing them out by then. In the 5th year we started catching 20"-22" fish, right about 4.5 pounds. In the 6th year we had quite a few 24" fish that went right at 6 pounds. Biggest I caught was a 28" fish (through the ice) just over 7 pounds. I should have had it mounted, biggest rainbow I have caught! Excluding steelhead.....

BIGJim223

[dabluz]

Fish grow constantly.  How big a fish will grow depends on food.  Put 1000 fish in a small pond and you will get smaller fish than if you put 500 fish instead.  If the water in the pond is not replenished, too many fish will end up contaminating the water and lowering the oxygen content.

Brook trout will need cooler water than rainbow trout but when it comes to eating trout, brook trout do taste better.

My daughter's father in law has a small pond.  It's about 70 feet long, 30 feet wide and about 10 feet deep.  It has a pretty good water flow through it and up here in Quebec, the water rarely gets above 70F.  He puts 500 trout into his pond in the spring and takes out the 500 fish in the fall.  The fish he puts in are about 7 to 8 inches long and when he removes them, they are about 12 inches long.  He feeds them all summer.  He has had some die off during hot spells.  Some years he has had very few die off due to heat.  Larger deeper ponds provide more places where the oxygen level is better for the fish.....if you do not put too many fish in the pond.

Up here, a good hectare of lake water (100 meters x 100 meters) will support about 30 lbs of brook trout in a natural environment.  You can increase that mass of fish by feeding them.

Don't expect brook trout to go over 16 or 18 inches.  They don't live long enough and will get larger only under very special circumstances.

[NH_RED]

Trout have indeterminate growth. Good food and water quality and they can grow till the day the die.  As mentioned it is their length of life that keeps them from growing large. lake trout as you can live for 60+ years and that is why you see them become giants under the right conditions.

[dekatronic]

Two other items to consider are water quality and trout strain.  In nature, water quality and food source are the natural bottlenecks for trout growth.  In an artificial environment these two items can be monitored and modified which can result in creating ideal conditions for fish growth.

Water quality includes among other things pH, oxygen, temperature, and percentage of dissolved waste products e.g. NH3 and NH4 concentrations.  Each of these items can be easily measured.  These items should be monitored throughout the year, but the most important thing is to eliminate any drastic changes to any one of these items or else risk shock/death to the fish population. 

Secondly trout strain will dictate the overall maximum size of growth.  For example Pennask strain will never grow to the size of Gerrard strain rainbows which can grow in excess of 50 lbs.  More importantly knowing your strain will determine the ideal environmental conditions to construct ( e.g. shoal vs. open water) and identifying the most ideal food sources for your particular strain. 

[fishermantim]

Most fish, in general, will grow in conjunction with the amount of room for growth and amount of food.

Example: Gold fish can live for decades. You put a 2" goldfish in a pond with constant supply of food and plenty of room, that fish will grow to monster porportions.
I have seen goldfish-carp released in Jamaica Pond at 4-6" grow to an astonishing 3-5' over the span of some 10-20 years.
I saw one bohemouth specimen cruise by where I was fishing and it would have been in the 30-40lb range, close to 4 feet long.
Wild card will grow to those lsizes as well, providing they have food and room for growth.

Trout, unfortunately, are genetically pre-programmed with a much shorter lifespan, so although they can get big in some waters, they really don't get "old".

So, after proving the strain and species of trout you may want to ask "How old do trout get in ponds?" instead of size.

heck, as long as you can catch them, does it really matter one way of the other?