by Wende Carr, The Weekly Adirondack
The helicopter lifts off from the North Street Airport in Old Forge. Photos by Wende Carr
Staff from the Rome office of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) worked to stock approximately 11,000 Brook Trout in Adirondack lakes and ponds on Wednesday, November 14.
The 25 receiving water bodies span from the Big Moose and Raquette Lake areas to the Oneida/Herkimer county line to the south.
A New York state pontoon helicopter, piloted by licensed state troopers, was used for the fish stocking, a method that is used each fall and spring.
Fish Culturists Ken Klubeck and John Draper
Fixed wing seaplanes are also used for fall stocking, and are hired out with Jim Payne of Inlet and Tom Helm of Long Lake piloting them.
The one-year-old Brook Trout stocked Wednesday were raised at DEC fish hatcheries in Chateaugay in Franklin County. Each spring, one-and-a-half year old Brook Trout are stocked as well.
Among those taking part in the fish stocking procedure were DEC personnel Steve Grabowski, Fish Culturist and B.J. Woodworth, Fish Culturist II.
The stocking procedure used in our lakes and ponds is called “put, grow and take,” according to Woodworth, which anticipates the fish having time to grow before being caught by fishermen.
A Brookie getting ready to travel
The average life span for Brook Trout is about six years, he said.
And when the Brook Trout have grown to legal size and ready to be hooked, Woodworth said their favored bait is a Lake Clear Wabbler with use of a worm.
