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Show Basin Farms Irs Stocked With Fisli, SCS. Ussisls By Thomas B. Evans Eighteen farmers in Uintah Basin recently stocked their farm ponds with 36,800 trout fingerlings. Through the cooperative coop-erative efforts of the Soil Con-: iervation Service and the Fis-i j and Wildlife Service, and working work-ing through the Uintah Basin j Soil Conservation District, these! fish are made available free of charge. I The farm pond is well known j as a recreational spot for' small boys and as a source of an oc-1 casional meal of fish, but with j proper management it will pro- j duce a crop of fish a suostan-' tial part of the meal require-' mentj of a family. Fish farming j is no more difficult than vef-- j etable growing, and the harvesting har-vesting of the c;op is sport rather rath-er ithan work. The farm pond may be managed as wisely as any other part of the farm, and its per-acre yield of meat may, in some cases, be the highest i on the farm. An increase in the production of animal products would be to the national good; therefore, the potentialities of the fish pond must not be overlooked. Ponds are used to' obtain better bet-ter distribution of grazing on range lands, as a part of farm irrigation systems, or they m?.y be built fto control erosion. Borrow Bor-row pits or other sites of no value for agriculture may be used for ponds. If properly mm-1 mm-1 aged for fish, farm ponds will i provide food and recreation and I will benefit waterfowl and up-. up-. land game. 1 Following are some accepted recommendations for pond construction, con-struction, planting and managing manag-ing ponds for trout: SIZE and DEPTH One-third to one surface-acre is a desirable desir-able size. Water, should be from 6 to 10 feet deep and must not drop below 3 feet in summer or below 10 feet in winter in areas of heavy ice. SHORE LINE Should slope abruptly into three feet of water. wa-ter. Shallow water encourages mosquitoes and weeds. TEMPERATURE Trout i thrive in ponds in which the I surface water does not go above ! 75 degrees Farenheit. Ponds above 6000 feet elevation are usually us-ually suitable for trout. Ponds at lower elevations that are fed bv cold springs or pump-water are usually suited to trout. Wa-1 Wa-1 ter flowing continuously! ', through the pond is not neces-I neces-I sary or desirable. For warmer waters stock with a combination of bass and bluegill. i VEGETATION Cattailj and other water weeds interfere with fishing, encourage mosquitoes, mos-quitoes, and are of little value to fish. SPECIES OF TROUT Experience Ex-perience indicates that rainbows are more satisfactory in ponds than other species of trout. Do not stock bass, bluegill or other f i-h with trout STOCKING RATE Five hundred hun-dred fry or fingerlings per surface-acre should produce fisi 9 to 12 inches Ions in one vear without artificial feeding. RESTOCKING Trout do not reproduce in most ponds and, therefore, must be restocked every ev-ery two or three years. Ponds that are fished heavily should be restocked every year. With plenty of food, the large trout remaining will not eat many of the small trout. OLD PONDS If the pond contains carp or other fish, all the fish should be removed before be-fore stocking with trout. Undesirable Un-desirable fish may be removed by draining or by the use of derris. If derris is used, a permit per-mit must be obtained from your State Fish and Game Department. Depart-ment. FERTILIZING Fertilizers encourage vthe production of insects in-sects upon which fish feed. The proper use of fertilizers will increase in-crease the poundage of fish produced pro-duced and will control most of the water weeds. HARVESTING THE CROP Fishing should start 8 to 12 months after stocking fingerlings. finger-lings. Growth is controlled by the amount of food present. When large fish are removed, more food is available for the smaller fish, which then grow rapidly. Most farm ponds are "ot fished enough. Failure to harvest the crop is wasteful and results in stunted fish. The Soil Conservation Ser- vice, through your Uintah Basin Soil Conservation District, can provide assistance' in planning and managing your fish pond. |