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The Batten Kill stocking: A matter of class?
If you've been following the Batten Kill trout stocking controversy, you know that the state, in the name of keeping hungry anglers happy, wants to stock the main stem of the Batten Kill with 1,000 sterile rainbow trout (fish whose sole purpose is to be caught and eaten; sterile so, in theory, the fish won't affect wild populations of brown and brook trout). The conservation group Trout Unlimited claims it's naive to think that such a stocking program won't effect the native fish. On Tuesday night, TU hosted a presentation by ecologist Robert Bachman at Burr and Burton's Riley Theater designed to reinforce its stance on the issue. Bachman, a former fisheries supervisor for the state of Maryland, was an entertaining speaker. A roundish, older gentleman, he projected the distinguished, rumpley aura of a college professor.
Dunbar Creek survey brings surprise
Biologists from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's regional office in Somerset surveyed the stream July 18-19, looking for wild and stocked trout. They found both in pretty good numbers. They also found something they weren't expecting. Electroshocking one section of stream, below what is known locally as the wire, they found eight hatchery brown trout and three hatchery brookies, but also four rainbow trout "that appeared to be either wild fish or fish that had been stocked as fingerlings, because they were all five to seven inches long," said the commission's area fisheries manager, Rick Lorson. .
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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