Moose Droppings

Drought Impacts Trout Stocking

Jan 25, 2008 @ 12:12 am by Moose

The severe drought that is gripping the state of North Carolina along with much of the rest of the southeast has lead the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to compress the stocking schedule for trout streams. The compressing of the schedule will allow fish to be put in streams when the water is a bit cooler then it is typically in the summer months as well as help protect fish stock in the hatchery for next year.

“With much of North Carolina in an exceptional drought and drought conditions forecasted into the summer, the aquatic habitat and environmental conditions for hatchery-trout production likely will continue to decline,” said Kyle Briggs, statewide hatchery production coordinator for the Commission. “However, we have every intention of stocking all of the trout scheduled for release in 2008 and will continue to target the normal sizes for those trout being stocked.”
“By removing a high proportion of the trout scheduled to be stocked this year before July, we can maximize the water and space we’ll need to produce the trout for the 2009 season,” Briggs said. “Given the anticipated drought conditions, this is a proactive, rational and equitable plan to address our trout production and stocking program for the next two years.”
Briggs doesn’t want to see a repeat of the fish kill at Armstrong last August when more than 103,000 brown and rainbow trout, the majority of which were schedule for stocking in 2008, succumbed to too much heat and too little rain.

There should be little impact if any according to the NCWRC based on previous surveys seeing where the majority of the fishing is done in the spring.