West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Stocking Streams

TU goes the extra mile to get trout into remote WV streams.

October 22, 2008
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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This is the morning dozens of Trout Unlimited volunteers have been waiting for.

The mules are here, dogs, adults, kids...all ready to do their part to stock this remote area of the Laurel Fork Wilderness Area with thousands of fingerling brown trout.

Steve Young/Trout Unlimited says:
"It's a wilderness area and you have to get in there by backpacks, you cannot have any kind of motorized vehicle in that area.

It adds to the fish in the fishery that normally would not have fish unless they re-produce naturally. The fish that are in there will become wild trout."

It doesn't get any better that this. It takes a lot of work to get these guys into the Laurel Fork. We put the trout in plastic bags then loaded the first of them onto a couple of pack mules and they were off.

Next all of us put backpacks full of trout on our shoulders and head off for a two mile treck to give these guys a good home.

Steve Young/Trout Unlimited says:
"We'll start out at 5AM and pick up fish and we're usually back there later in the evening, it's an all day event.

We usually start planning the stocking events back in January. We submit a list and the DNR Cold Water Fisheries will approve it and we start from there. We start our program in April and this is the last one we do."

Hopefully, in a few years, that little guy will be this big...and that means a lot of fun for the lucky angler who'll catch him.

Steve Young/Trout Unlimited says:
"The fish, if they're in a good habitat, will grow 4-5 inches a year, maybe. In a good stream, fish will grow, especially the brown trout, they'll grow in length.

It's a rewarding feeling because you'll catch wild fish and that benefits TU and gives something back. That's why I do it."

Because of all the hard work of TU and this group of volunteers, even the wildest parts of Wild, Wonderful West Virginia will have some wild trout swimming in streams. For West Virginia Wildlife, I'm Patrick McMurtry, Eyewitness News.