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Berkshire Trout Hatchery to stay open
NEW MARLBOROUGH This is a fish story with a happy ending. Yesterday afternoon, a representative from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding with representatives from the Berkshire Trout Hatchery Foundation to allow the foundation to run the hatchery, keeping it open for the foreseeable future. The Berkshire Trout Hatchery, in the village of Hartsville, is, in many ways, one of the most important places in Berkshire County, not to mention one of the least known. It is one of the oldest trout hatcheries in the United States, created in 1914 through a gift from the John Sullivan Scully family. But the hatchery was privately owned for several years before that, according to LeRoy Thorpe, a member of the foundation's board of directors. "It's more than 100 years old, easily," he said.
Web site gives peek at aquatic insects
Fly fishermen who chase freshwater trout throughout North America now have the ability to get a new detailed peek into the world of aquatic insects which form the forage base for the likes of rainbows, brookies and browns. The web site www.troutnut.com was re-launched in late August and it offers a detailed encyclopedia of mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies. Site developer Jason Neuswanger has gathered thousands of color closeup photographs of trout stream insects. Neuswanger says the web site offers much more than can be found in the hundreds of books on the subject. "The best books were written before I was born," said Neuswanger, a Cornell graduate, "and since that time technology has lifted some big limitations." Neuswanger covers the behavior of the stream side insects, which vary as much as their appearances.
All systems go for trout season
Finally, thousands of wader-wearing Vermont anglers will have the chance to dance on the grave of Old Man Winter when trout season opens Saturday morning.
"It seems like people have a lot of desire and demand to get outside and do something than going skiing," said Roger Ranz, owner of the Classic Outfitters tackle shop in South Burlington. "Everybody is primed for a good season."
Opening-day trout fishing in Vermont usually means more freezing fingers than fish. Rivers and streams swollen with rain and melting snow and near-freezing water temperatures conspire to make catching trout an iffy proposition.
"The water will be high and it will be cold," said John Hall, a spokesman for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. "The trout are going to be down deep and not as active as they will be later in the year.
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