Fish Stocking

Fish Stocking? Do we do it? Where do we do it?  How and why we do it?  These questions are always coming up and we wanted to share with you, our valued members, what our stocking practice is and how we manage our fisheries.  First of all yes we do stock.  With that being said, we don’t stock all the waters, we only stock the lakes and few different stretches of river where we feel the systems can support more fish.  Since our lakes are not self-sustaining fisheries we have to supplementally stock fish each year.  The fish we stock in the lakes and streams are small 10-14 inches and will generally live 4-6 years in our waters.  Our strategy with stocking is simple.  We want to introduce fish into our waters when they are small so they can grow up and learn to survive by eating the natural foods that are available to them.  We do not stock “Big Fish”.  Our big fish are generally wild browns or rainbows that have been in the waters for 6 plus years.  Most of the streams on the property are left alone and are wild brown and rainbow trout fisheries.

All of our fish come from the same hatchery in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  We have built a relationship with a small operation that grows fish in ponds that are spring fed and 38 degrees year round.  The fish are very healthy and eat bugs from birth which is a great advantage to us when stocking them in our waters.  We have constructed our own stocking truck so we can drive out to the hatchery to load fish then bring them back and stock them ourselves.  This has been a great advantage for us because we are hands on stocking fish making sure they get to the correct waters and that all the fish are released properly.  Our truck is much lighter and better equipped to get to some of the remote lakes and streams that we have on the club property making it possible for us to keep expanding our fisheries.  Each year we pay close attention the health and quality of our fisheries and we’ll keep working hard to make this fishing club great for our members.