C. Boyd Pfeiffer, The Examiner
2008-03-14 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Russ Parson stood on the walkway of the tank truck, capped a five-gallon bucket full of rainbow trout and handed it down to Charlie Gougeon. Gougeon then labored down the hill to dump the trout into the Patapsco — one of about 120 bucket trips on that river one day earlier this week.

Gougeon, Department of Natural Resources central region fisheries manager, figures about 25 trout to a bucket, with 3,000 trout in the tank truck on this one day. As Gougeon dumped his rainbows, other DNR employees — Jeff Dilling, Mark Staley, and Todd Heerd — took buckets from Parson, going upstream and down to stock different parts of the same area. It was just one truck stop of many that day along the river.

Water-filled buckets get a netted load of trout, these buckets handed to others to take them to the stream. All take pains to distribute the trout as widely as possible.

“If we are going to spend 12 to 14 months to raise these trout,” said Gougeon of the 10-inch-and-larger trout flopping around in buckets, “then we like to spread them around for the benefit of the anglers.”

This past Monday was just one of about 35 days spent on the spring stocking of trout in the six counties making up the central region. That means that more than100,000 trout are filling trout waters here in time for a trout “opener.”

Earlier stockings also have taken place, with more loads of trout fingerlings — and later bass and bluegill or other species of sunfish — stocked into Central Maryland waters. And that is just one of the four regional fisheries centers that are doing the same thing now and throughout the year. About 337,900 trout are going into Maryland waters, not counting fingerlings.

All this effort is with fisheries employees and volunteers from groups like Trout Unlimited, which regularly helps out. They are out in all kinds of weather — rain and sleet included. The Post Office has nothing on these guys.

The bucket brigade seems simple, but it is hard work, said Frank Dawson, DNR assistant secretary. He was away from his DNR Annapolis desk with his daughter Alli, 15, out for a school “Job Shadow Day.” Both carried buckets and stocked trout.

The hard work for guys like driver Parson begins in the wee morning hours when he takes his truck from the Unicorn Eastern Shore DNR office, drives to Hagerstown to pick up 3,000 trout at the Albert Powell Fish Hatchery and then turns East again to deliver the trout to the waiting early morning crew.

The five-gallon buckets are the best way to get the trout to the stream, although they must have screw-on lids to prevent trout from flipping out. The aerated water in the tank trucks keeps the trout healthy and frisky.

Where possible, a large pipe extension bottom tank hook-up allows trout to be directly shot into the water through a finny version of an amusement park water slide. This is only possible when the truck can back up close to the water’s edge — usually at ponds.

In some cases where a road meanders far from a trout stream to make a bucket brigade difficult or impossible, float boxes are used, often manned by volunteers. These are large floating mesh boxes with flip-up lids, similar to stocking cartons used by department and discount stores. They are filled and floated downstream to release trout periodically through a given stretch of water.

Just remember — if you can fish it, trout are there.

For more information on stocking schedules and stream closures, check the Maryland Fishing Guide. For preseason stocking info, check online at www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/stocking/springtroutstock.html. For current stocking info, call 1-800-688-3467, or check online at www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/stocking/springstocktable.html.