Had A 100,000 Brook Trout Day...

[West Fork Jason]

It was the annual "Fin Clip Saturday". Wild Rivers Trout Unlimited and the American Fisheries Society volunteered at the Red Cliff Band fish hatchery to ready 100,000 brook trout for release into the big lake.

http://redcliff-nsn.gov/divisions/naturalresources/hatchery.htm

Join your local TU chapter if aren't already a member, TU does great work for fisheries conservation and restoration!

[Quillback]

Didn't know Lake Superior is stocked with brookies. Are there enough to support a sport fishery? Do they get sizeable living in the big lake?

[West Fork Jason]

Coasters used to be the main native lake run fish (coaster is to brook trout as steelhead is to rainbow trout)((Did I just quote the ACT??)) in the whole lake superior basin, prior to the introduction of; various salmon species, the rainbow trout, and brown trout. Now they have some serious competition from these surrogate species in the lake and the streams. There has been a push to try to restore the Lake trout and Brook trout populations lately through habitat restoration and stocking. The stocking is always a bit of a hot button thing b/c a lot of folks want the wild genetics instead of the fish pellet eaters. Large wild populations still exist around Isle Royal and northward into Canada.

And yes, they get BIG in the BIG lake. (20+ inches)

Big males in their fall spawning colors are one of the most beautiful fish I've seen.

[Ham]

How long until your hands quit smelling like fish?

[West Fork Jason]

How long until your hands quit smelling like fish?

The fish stink doesn't go away till I put up the fishing rods and get the long guns out for deer season just before Thanksgiving. mmmm...venison.... <----that's a venison popcicle emoticon, right??