Where are the fish?

[mhall02]

Fished Saturday in the fly zone and never seen so few fish since I've been going down there (20+ years).  What happened?  Did they forget to stock?  

Interesting note, caught 3 or 4 dinks, way too small to be stocked and they were beautiful.   Did they have a successful spawn last winter??

[jdmidwest]

Someone said it was due to spring floods and fish losses. 

I am wondering where all of the fish are coming from to stock winter pond programs and if that may affect the parks. They keep adding more winter lakes but are limited as to how many fish they raise

Or, Otters may have just cleaned them out. 

[fshndoug]

trout do not spawn in the parks

 

[bkbying89]

I did see an otter in the park gnawing on something earlier this year. I have noticed on one stream that otters have been spotted on that one pool in particular that normally held a few trout, failed me the last time I fished it.

 

[Gavin]

MDC does purchase trout for the urban program. Not sure how many, but I know they buy some from a private hatchery near Steelville.

[10pointer]

Montauk I believe is a main supplier for the Urban Fishing program unfortunately. Not just stockers but all of the brood stock lunkers (100's) come out of Montauk hatchery that I know of.  Seen them personally delivered at Busch Wildlife and other urban lakes as well. The reasoning straight from the mouths of personnel is that the fish are a "state resource" and have to be shared.  I have also heard that fish are shared as other parks attendance over the years was dropping due to decreasing numbers and size...thus the need to share with Bennett and Meremac.

I get the "state resource" aspect but nothing is more infuriating than seeing lunkers and stockers get dumped into Urban C&R lakes that are still way to warm and watch them go belly up. The first few days they are stocked is extremely tough on the big fish and low oxygen and higher temps is a recipe for disaster. I cant count how many times I have seen fished released that go belly up even with proper resuscitating technique and release. The fish don't have a chance in hell of making it very long.

I noticed the fly area was sparsely stocked the last several months.  On a positive note I have noticed increased overall size of the fish that are stocked though.

Montauk Hatchery (Tom Whelan and staff) is the best there is in my opinion on raising quality fish (Shepard of the Hills does great as well). Just wish more of those fish stayed where they were raised!