Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Up 'til now I thought that my trout were going to be smaller than last year. Firstly I was not feeding so much - forget the idea of feeding trout as much as they can eat in 5 mins or feed until they stop eating - you will just get fat fish like I did last year.
I have at best been only able to feed once a day and maybe twice on the weekend for most of the season. Now that the days are longer I have just started feeding twice a day.
Anyhow the first fish I pulled out in late July was only 269gms and another just shy of 300gms, the next in early September 325gms. Then a couple of weeks later a 353gms fish. Nothing worth bragging about but still I was very happy with the results.
Then a couple of days ago I had a dip for some fish and pulled out a 1070gm/350mm fish



and then a 752gm fish



and then a 845gm fish



but wait there's more...

and finally a 533gm fish.


It seems that I was only catching the smaller ones while the big one got away.

With water changes and less feed the nitrates haven't been so high this season and have managed to keep them under 200ppm and they are under 50ppm ATM.
SWMBO noticed the muddy taste last season but this season she can't taste it.

Very nice Marc!!

Yeh... thanks Marc!... it's like the showers at high school all over again!

here is my first harvest of the season... pretty happy with these guys so far

Well done, Marc d W! Your trout this season look quite chubby but are positively anorexic compared to last years fish! Whatever you have done has worked well for you.

Regarding the muddy taste, we had noticed it with the first trout we tried (a couple we bought from the joint we get the fingerling) and there was a muddy taste. So much so a dark cloud was cast over the project in it's infancy. But hey, ours would be in clean water as opposed to a pond. Months later when we started on our own, we were disappointed with the taste again. We harvested and froze them and the ones after that were perfect (the Italian mum of a friend cooked the first of them and we chalked it up to her). Subsequently we have decided that freezing, or at least chilling them before cooking takes that taste away, a theory supported by a few local river fish veterans. As for the taste to size ratio, I'm with PLJ, I'd be happy to find my 750g fish should have been harvested at 400g

Hi

I thought we would add our pictures.
We pulled these two out yesterday for a BBQ. And this was the result

very nice fish. there is somthing really satisfying producing this size fish in such a short time.
how many more do you have in there?

I think we have about another 20 or so. We just pull a couple up every 2 weeks or so and try another recipe out on them. Smoked, seems to be the nicest so far.

SWMBO had a go at filleting the fish. Great effort for a first attempt, at least there were no bones. I fried up the carcases and had a great feed as well. Anyhow the photos below show how orange the flesh is.

Noice....

Had em on a diet this year Marc ?

Weight watchers...

Wow, those trout are impressive, tailorfishing! How long have you been growing them?

Marc, your trout fillets are the same colour as Atlantic Salmon fillets. My trout exhibit a subtle pinkish orange colour, but nothing like that.