Wildcat access 7/9

[netboy]

I fished upstream from Wildcat ramp today and had a good morning. I caught 5 or 6 on Sulphur dries early and then a few more stripping a yellow crackleback. The trout quit rising around 9 so I switched to an egg/midge combo under an indicator and caught a bunch more including this pretty golden rainbow. Man those things look like a neon light in the river. Very easy to sight cast to.

I started hearing thunder around 10:30 so I ran back to the ramp and when I got there the stocking truck from Mammoth Spring was just backing down. There was an AGFC inflatable raft there and they loaded the fish into a net in the middle of the raft. They said they would release the trout between Wildcat and Cotter and then the truck will meet them at Cotter ramp and load the raft again for releases between Cotter and Rim Shoals. That is the first time I have seen the stocking raft. Normally they just dump the fish at the ramp.

 

[Quillback]

That's good that they stock some down river.  How many do you think are in a raft load?

[Devan S.]

Man those goldens are a neat bonus. 

That one looks a bit bigger than stocker so maybe its survived the barrage of fisherman/preadators?

[netboy]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

That's good that they stock some down river.  How many do you think are in a raft load?

They off loaded 4 boxes from the truck into the raft which would probably be around a thousand (approximately 250 per box).

The truck has 10 boxes and I think that's around 2,500 for a full load from what I was told by the biologist at Jim Hinkle hatchery when I lived over in Cherokee Village and fished the Spring river and talked to the hatchery guys all the time.  He did say that it depends on the size of the fish and they estimate the number of fish in the tank by the displacement of water in the tank based on the average weight of the fish stocked. These looked to be in the 12-13" range. I have seen lots of stockings and the trout from Jim Hinkle hatchery are usually 1-2" bigger than those that come from the Norfork Federal hatchery.  

It's a very interesting trip to visit the trout hatcheries here in the Ozarks. 

[Greasy B]

Years ago the guy who ran Wildcat Shoals resort use to watch for the stocking truck and quickly run is boat across the river to scatter the fish before the bait fishers would show up. The raft is a great idea.