Volunteer bucket brigade worth its weight in trout

It started out with an e-mail from Steve English, an avid fishermen and trout angler and his altruistic volunteer attempts to help Department of Natural Resources fisheries staff stock preseason trout.

English is one of 28,000 volunteers who annually help the DNR and Natural Resources Police in environmental, boater and hunter education, fisheries stocking, water-quality monitoring, tree planting, law enforcement and state parks maintenance throughout. With DNR budget and staff shortfalls looming in the General Assembly, we could not do without them.

Last week, English somehow received misinformation on a supposedly noon meeting with the stocking tank truck at Deer Creek. In this case, the wrong information did not come from someone in fisheries or from DNR central fisheries manager Charlie Gougeon. Gougeon waves his magic coordinating wand and makes stocking happen, as do managers of other state regions.

On the day in question, the truck visited the upper Gunpowder at noon, then got to Deer Creek later that day.

Gougeon pointed out that the number on the inside back cover of the Maryland 2008 Fishing Guide lists the Central Region (410-442-2080). By calling, volunteers can get correct information about helping trout find a happy home in a gurgling stream. Gougeon’s Central Regional office covers stocking in Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, Carroll, Harford and Cecil counties. Regional office numbers for other parts of the state are also listed.

Gougeon pointed out that he is happy to entertain serious volunteers anxious to help stock trout. He provides the necessary information about dates and times to meet his crews to bucket trout from the tank truck to the stream.

“We are looking for serious volunteers who can commit to three or four hours of time on a given day,” Gougeon said.

And no, advance information on preseason stocking is not listed or available, in order to foil tank-truck followers more interested in stocking the larder than stocking the stream. They would be better off with a bit of Cheese Whiz on their hook dangled in a 20-foot square plastic sport show “trout tank,” the melodic sound of an air compressor aerator thumping in the background.

The problems for English exacerbated when he found the parking lots at Rocks State Park barred and locked, denying him access to park and fish, had he wanted. He could have fished legally, since the trout fishing closure period during later stocking (closed March 9 to the March 29 opener and from April 13 to the April 19 opener for Deer Creek) was not in effect. That’s also where David Taylor, Rocks State Park manager, entered the picture.

Taylor noted that parking areas in his and other Maryland parks are normally locked and barred in the winter. That’s because restroom facilities are inaccessible. They have to be drained and winterized, preventing public use.

He noted that parking lot gates are open on the first day of trout fishing (March 29) after the closed stocking season. Later “opening days” following stocking closure periods are on April 19 and April 26, depending upon the stream.

A complete listing for all streams, regulations and closure periods begin on Page 16 of the guide. Taylor noted that portable restrooms are provided on those rare occasions when a late-season severe cold and frost situation occurs.

All’s well now with English able to get the right information from Gougeon for stocking help. For those interested in swelling the numbers of those current 28,000 DNR volunteers, check the DNR Web site (www.dnr.state.md.us), clicking the “volunteers” bar on the left side.

C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting and the outdoors. He can be reached at cbpfeiffer@msn.com