Winter Trout Stockings

Some of you have already seen this news release:

Additional Trout Stockings Begin Dec. 2

by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission on Friday, November 30, 2012 at 8:38am ·

Another round of rainbow trout stocking begins Dec. 2 in Nebraska. Two Lincoln lakes – Holmes and Bowling – will get 3,000 and 400 10-inch fish, respectively. David City Park’s west pond will get 600 fish.

Anglers have been taking advantage of the mild fall weather by catching trout stocked by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in urban and park waters around the state in October. More waters will receive additional stockings in the coming weeks to provide opportunities for ice anglers this winter.

Anglers can check all fish stockings at http://www.outdoornebraska.ne.gov/fishing/guides/fishguide/FGstocking.asp

Let me add some additional details and make a few comments.  We stock a lot of urban and parks waters around the state with catchable-size rainbow trout in the fall, and on some of those waters we try to stock an additional load of trout in early winter before or shortly after we have ice.  Yes, we have enough fishing pressure on many of those waters that most of the trout stocked in October will already have taken a ride home in the back of someone’s pickup by December.  When we stock some more fish in December there should be some 10-inch trout for anglers to catch through the ice or from open water if we happen to have a stinkin’ mild winter.

From the news release you know that the park pond in David City and Holmes and Bowling lakes in Lincoln are receiving additional trout this weekend.  I cannot give you an exact schedule, but I can tell you that more waters will be stocked in the coming weeks:  Heartwell Park in Hastings, Such’s Lake in Grand Island, Century Link Pond at Mahoney State Park (formerly known as Qwest), Standing Bear Reservoir in Omaha, Weeping Water park pond and Halleck Park pond in Papillion are scheduled to be stocked with some more trout in December.  Follow the link above to our stocking database to review all of our fish stockings and “stay tuned” to our FaceBook page for additional announcements ( http://www.facebook.com/NEGameandParks ).

Let me crawl up on my soap-box and make some additional comments before I shut up.  The rainbow trout we are stocking are relatively easy to catch and remain relatively easty to catch even in cold water.  We stock those fish in heavily-used parks and urban waters because we want to provide some relatively easy-to-catch fish close to a lot of kids and beginning anglers.  Our intent with those stockings is to get the kids and beginners “hooked on fishing”!

You can see in my photo above that we do have a lot of kids and beginning anglers take advantage of these stockings.  However, recently, I have been around a couple of the urban and parks waters where the put & take trout have been stocked this fall, and it bothers me when I see a bunch of adults with no kids fishing.  I know some of those adults may be beginners and they are rightfully taking advantage of our put & take trout stocking.  I know some of them will have the kids with them at a later time.  But, unfortunately, I also know that we have a bunch of adult anglers who wait for the trout stocking trucks to show up so they can start filling their freezers and their neighbor’s freezers with trout.  I know there are folks that will hit those fisheries where the put & take trout are stocked, catch and harvest their limit of trout, and keep going back day after day after day and take their limits until they cannot catch anymore.

I will say this, may make some of you upset, but if you are one of those anglers, you ain’t getting it!  We are not in the “protein supply business”.  We do not stock those put & take rainbows so folks can fill their freezers.  We want those fish caught and yes, we even want them harvested, but we want them to provide recreational opportunities for folks who might not already be hard-core anglers.  Do me a favor, quit filling your freezer, find a kid and take them fishing!