Ohio waterways being stocked with fish

The 2012 pro­duc­tion sea­son for the Divi­sion of Wildlife’s six state fish hatch­eries is off to a great start, accord­ing to the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources’ Divi­sion of Wildlife.

More than 23 mil­lion sport fish have been stocked statewide thus far with late sum­mer and fall stock­ings yet to be com­pleted. Unusu­ally warm tem­per­a­tures in early spring accel­er­ated egg take and required fish man­age­ment per­son­nel to adapt quickly to the unex­pected weather.

“Our hatch­ery staff has been really busy this year, and we are very happy with our pro­duc­tion so far,” said Tim Par­rett, fish hatch­ery pro­gram admin­is­tra­tor with the Divi­sion of Wildlife. “The ulti­mate goal at the end of the day is for our anglers to have success.”

Hatch­ery crews began the stock­ing sea­son in early March with catch­able rain­bow trout that kicked off the fish­ing sea­son for many out­door enthu­si­asts. These trout stock­ings con­tin­ued through April with many of the stock­ings coin­cid­ing with youth or other spe­cial events, pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for begin­ning or novice anglers.

Wall­eye and saug­eye were dis­trib­uted statewide in April and May. Ohio’s saug­eye pro­gram is very pop­u­lar with inland anglers. This hybrid, a cross between female wall­eye and male sauger, has been stocked in many of Ohio’s inland lakes since the late 1970s. Saug­eye have cre­ated a fish­ery in lakes where wall­eye stock­ings proved unsuc­cess­ful. Both saug­eye and wall­eye are excel­lent table fare.

Steel­head are stocked in select trib­u­taries of Lake Erie in April and May, and they were raised at the newly ren­o­vated Castalia State Fish Hatch­ery. This facil­ity is the only steel­head hatch­ery oper­ated by the Divi­sion of Wildlife. Ohio’s steel­head fish­ery is among the best in the Great Lakes region, attract­ing anglers from across the country.

Hybrid striped bass and yel­low perch fin­ished off this spring’s stock­ings. Late sum­mer and fall plans include muskel­lunge, chan­nel cat­fish, blue cat­fish and brown trout, fur­ther adding to the diver­sity of oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able for anglers.

Sales of fish­ing licenses along with the Sport Fish Restora­tion pro­gram con­tinue to fund the oper­a­tion of the Divi­sion of Wildlife’s fish hatch­eries. No state tax dol­lars are used for this activ­ity. This is a user-pay, user-benefit program.

The SFR is a part­ner­ship between fed­eral and state gov­ern­ment, indus­try, and anglers/boaters. When anglers pur­chase rods, reels, fish­ing tackle, fish find­ers and motor boat fuel, they pay an excise tax. The fed­eral gov­ern­ment col­lects these taxes and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice admin­is­ters and dis­burses these funds to the state fish and wildlife agen­cies. These funds are used to acquire habi­tat, pro­duce and stock fish, con­duct research and sur­veys, pro­vide aquatic edu­ca­tion to youth and acquire and develop boat accesses.

Sport fish reared at state fish hatch­eries pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for anglers, old and young alike, novice or expert. Whether peo­ple are look­ing for ways to spend leisure time with fam­ily or friends, pur­sue a tro­phy fish like the muskel­lunge, or want­ing healthy, nutri­tious food for the table, Ohio offers it all.

ODNR ensures a bal­ance between wise use and pro­tec­tion of our nat­ural resources for the ben­e­fit of all. Visit the ODNR web­site at ohiodnr.com.

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Aug 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.