EKB News

KENTUCKY...
Every year, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources stocks 725,000 trout in the state’s streams, rivers and lakes. Have you ever wondered how nearly three-quarters of a million trout get from the hatchery to your favorite fishing hole? The Fish Transportation Section stocks most of the brown and rainbow trout in the state, part of the 4.5 million fish that Kentucky Fish and Wildlife stocks each year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also helps stock trout in the streams within the Daniel Boone National Forest, including the rugged Red River Gorge. Sometimes, however, it takes assistance from volunteers to help trout on the final leg of their journey. The most difficult part of stocking can be getting trout from a transportation truck to a remote stream. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife employees may hike miles of hills, climb over logs and finally slide into streams just to get fish to the water. Quickly getting trout to the water takes work and is vital to the health of the fish, so each spring and fall, as the fish hauling trucks load up, fisheries employees round up volunteers to help with the wilderness trout stockings.
Last October, the Northeastern Fishery District needed help stocking trout in Swift Camp Creek in the Red River Gorge. Fisheries Technician Kevan Lane, a former employee of the Frenchburg Group Home in Menifee County, suggested the boys’ home as a source of volunteers. It was a win-win situation: Volunteers learned about stocking fish and the outdoors, while department employees received some much-needed help. The volunteers did such a good job that they have since helped stock brown trout in the headwaters of East Fork of Indian Creek and again in Swift Camp Creek. They even chipped in and helped run a bait station at the Cave Run Kids’ Fishing Derby in early June.