Stocking the Pond

The Pond at the Ranch is about three acres. Fed from Childs Ditch, the water is cold — snow melt from Mt. Lassen. It comes down Digger Creek, enters Childs Ditch about half a mile to the east of the Ranch, runs through Childs Ditch for the length of the Ranch, and finally enters the north end of the Pond in two places. The water flows back to the south where it is screened, runs down a culvert, and re-enters Digger Creek.

When we moved to the Ranch, there were fish, but not many, as the Pond had not been stocked for several years. Every once in a while, we would spot a hog of a trout rising during a hatch, but they were few and far between.

So we called our friends at Mt. Lassen Trout Farm and put in an order for one hundred pounds of Rainbow Trout. The Pond will be a great refrigerator to store the trout until it is time to catch and cook ‘em.

The trout arrived on a truck. Dan put in a fish ramp, opened the gate, and into the Pond they went.

Carrie and Grayson came up to the Ranch the very next weekend. Carrie’s friend Dana and her kids, Will and Annabel, also joined us. It wasn’t long before the kids were landing fish!

We set a limit of one fish per kid and had three to put on the grill. They were tasty!