Region’s hatcheries ready for stocking season
By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist
We are moving toward what is my favorite time of year — spring — with the prospect of some trout fishing. As is always the case, hatcheries are readying fish to be sent forth into our rivers, lakes and ponds. And, as in years past, the Department of Environmental Conservation has some large brown trout - 12to 15 inchers - to release in our major rivers such as the Ausable, Boquet, Saranac, Chateaugay, Trout and LaChute. (For a complete listing, go to the Outdoor Perspective website.)
There are some additions and a few oddities worth mentioning from last year. Taylor Pond in southwestern Clinton County got 200,000 kokanee salmon last year, and that’s got some kokanee advocates upset. Jim Whitelaw from Bloomingdale, a lifelong kokanee proponent, worries there won’t be enough to go around for other ponds like Poliwog and West Pine in the St. Regis Canoe Area. The problem with kokanee, a small Pacific salmon that dies after spawning, is that in New York there’s really only one place they are raised and that is Twin Ponds in Region 6. Here the numbers are limited, so Taylor Pond was the big winner in last year’s kokanee giveaway.
Splake were and still will be stocked in places like Meachum Lake and Long Pond (Santa Clara), as will tiger muskellunge in Lincoln Pond (Essex County). Last year, larger walleye were stocked in Franklin Falls Flow, and reports are that they have finally taken hold there. As usual, downriver at Union Falls, 2.7 million one-half inch walleyes are stocked annually. The DEC hotline (891-5413), once again, is a good source for general fishing conditions.
Computer licensing is expected by this summer, though my licensing agent in the Town of Black Brook isn’t so sure everything will be in place by then. Essentially, it will be a drivers license swipe system, similar to the way credit cards are processed in stores.
Most special tags will be a thing of the past, with call-in reporting for turkeys. Licenses will also be available by phone or on the Internet, that is if everything works the way it is supposed to work.