Trout fishing booms thanks to spring stocking

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Trout fishing booms thanks to spring stocking

Anglers are enjoying terrific trout fishing in many lakes and reservoirs thanks to fish stockings undertaken late last year after heavy rains.

In order to make the most of good rainfall, 187,500 extra trout were sourced at short notice from DPI’s Snobs Creek hatchery and private hatcheries last spring. This was a quick response to kick-start these fisheries after years of prolonged drought.

Many of these fish were rainbow trout released as fingerlings, while others were much larger yearling trout of around 50 grams each.

In 2010 Fisheries Victoria stocked nearly 2.4 million fish including more than 706,000 trout.

Last year’s rapid stocking response has delivered the goods for freshwater anglers already, with the yearling stockings already starting to pay off. Anderson’s Lagoon, near Ballarat, was the standout performer. Big numbers of rainbow trout between 800 grams and 1kg have been caught from Anderson’s (otherwise known as Hepburn’s Lagoon), just five months after release.

Newlyn Reservoir was another big improver with rainbow trout between 500 and 700 grams being landed, while Bostock Reservoir, near Ballan, yielded rainbows up to 500 grams.

Greenhill Lake, near Ararat, has been producing rainbow trout up to 1 kg and anglers have also enjoyed success at Tullaroop Reservoir, Lake Elingamite and Deep Lake further south.

More than $181,000 of recreational fishing licence revenue has funded the drought recovery stockings.



Source: Vic Fisheries