backyard fish farm question?

Hi all!....hopefully i'm in the correct section...anyways, i plan on raising some trout this year, my property has a couple of streams, and its all billy goat land, so the water goes pretty good all year long, i've been here 6 yrs now....my question is....would it be better to build a say 8x8x3ft "cage" and just keep it in the water....or....use one of those 4x4 plastic containers, have it the water gravity fed thru the top, use the release valve at the bottem to drain, just letting the thing contniously fed?....ive got plenty of spots were this would be easy.....to get the trout, i would just trap-net ect them, theres always plenty of brookies, and i feed them anyways just because i like watching them, i have a couple of favorite pools i do it in.....the main river outfront is stocked with all the usual trout, so i could realisticaly put bigger stuff in, but where i plan on doing this would be on this smaller one that helps feed the bigger, i live in NH.....if i did the cage bit, id have to pull it out every winter....wasnt sure about the 4x4 steup.

Hello Craig,

I have two trout ponds and have done well getting them to spawn naturally for a few years. Now there getting big and seem to have slowed down a bit, not sure why yet. Your setting sound great, but you may want to check with fish and game. You can buy trout, but you can't catch them at put them in a pen, so let pretend you didn't write that down. I'm in Thetford, VT where are you?

Hi Mr White Cloud....ok....soooo looks like i'll buy some trout....i really dont have the pond option, at least nothing that wouldnt break the bank, all boulders, not a lot of flat spots....i live in sothern nh....can see mt. monadnock out there if that helps.....so should i go an alter my original question or will the fish question be satisfactory right here....to keep me outta trouble.

Hey Craig,

All is good. There are all types of pen configurations. What is important is your water flow. If it's not enough the pens can get hot. You can't put them in the streams, that is illegal as well. Give me a call sometime, you can get my number off my profile.

jay