Game and Parks spring trout stocking gets underway

PAWNEE CITY - The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is making an effort to get more young Nebraskans interested in fishing.

Every spring and fall, Game and Parks stocks lakes and ponds with 10-inch Rainbow Trout. Daryl Bauer, head of the Game and Parks fisheries division, explains.

“So we stock them from one end of the state to the other,” Bauer said. “This way, beginners, especially, kids, can get hooked on fishing, literally.”

Bauer tells NCN that Game and Parks gets trout eggs from neighboring states, then grows them for about a year in local fish hatcheries. Once they’re “catchable” size, they’re loaded up, and brought to the stocking areas where they’re released.

“They’re raised on an artificial feed in those hatchery ponds. When they’re ready to stock, ponds are drained, they’re netted out and we load them up and get them ready to go,” Bauer said. “When they get there, we open the back of the truck up, put a gate on and let them go.”

Stocking months are late fall and very early spring — not necessarily ideal fishing weather. However, with trout being cold water fish, they need cooler water to survive, meaning they need to be released in cooler temperatures.

“We do not expect them to survive the summer,” Bauer said. “We stock them with water that’s cold enough to support them. That way, most of them ill be caught by the time it gets to warm for them and then next fall we’ll come back with more of them.”

For success this spring, anglers are encouraged to try shiner spoon lures, and even small marshmallows and canned corn.