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Feds say trout hatchery in New Marlborough can stay open
NEW MARLBOROUGH, Mass. The Berkshire Trout Hatchery in New Marlborough will remain open for the foreseeable future. The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with representatives from the Berkshire Trout Hatchery Foundation. The hatchery is the only federal one in Western Massachusetts, and the only volunteer-run hatchery in the country. The facility includes 148 acres covered by marked trails, and it raises rainbow and brown trout for release into local waters. The hatchery includes a gravity-fed springwater system of pools to breed and hatch the fish. The hatchery also is raising 20-thousand Atlantic Salmon for use in the Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Restoration program. That program is trying to reintroduce Atlantic salmon into the Connecticut River Valley.
Fly fishing smallies in the fading summer
It's unbelievable how some years are dominated by certain types of fishing. Some years the surf is hot for stripers or blues. Some years trout fishing is hot in the streams. This year the hottest fishery going in freshwater is the smallmouth fishing in the rivers and streams throughout New Jersey. While most fly fishermen consider fishing for trout the ultimate sport, one day with a good dose of bronzeback with a buggy whip just might make them think twice. If I had to pick one fish that was my all-time favorite to catch, Ol' Mr. Bronzeback would be at the top of the list. Pound-for-pound, inch-for-inch, there is no better fighting fish to be found in the sweet water. While smallies are found both in the still waters of a lake or reservoir, they especially are feisty when they are found in the current environment of a river or large stream.
river people at heart
But, while owning a fly-fishing shop helps pays the bills, Mann and Williamson are river people at heart. They study rivers, fish them and praise them. "The Flambeau is as good as rivers get,'' Mann said last week, while he operated the oars on a drift boat on the Flambeau River. "It has smallmouth bass, muskie, catfish. The Flambeau ranges from lots of fish to big fish. It's loaded." We had met at the Flambeau with two drift boats, lots of fly rods and plenty of bottled water to endure one of hottest summer days in years. Williamson piloted one boat with Dave Carlson, a television outdoors reporter from Eau Claire, Wis. Mann operated the other boat, where I would fish with wildlife artist Bob White from Marine on St. Croix. A bounty of rainfall in northern Wisconsin has pushed the Flambeau River to normal levels, a stark contrast to conditions earlier this summer.
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