Flingin' Fish

HARLEM VALLEY — The fish tank truck from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) made its last run of the season on Thursday, April 22, along Ten Mile River and Webatuck Creek.  Word was sent out to volunteers from Dutchess County sports and conservation groups to meet at Adams Diner in Dover, at the intersection of Route 55 and Route 22, at 2 p.m.

The sportsmen followed the fish hatchery truck north along winding back roads to help get the fish from their tanks on the back of the truck into the water. Members of Mid-Hudson Trout Unlimited, the Federation of Dutchess County Fish and Game Clubs and the Millerton Gun Club all pitched in.  

Kenny Rose from the federation has been volunteering for 22 years and estimated that he has helped relocate 1.25 million fish.

Trout season officially began on Saturday, April 1, but restocking the streams started on Tuesday, March 15, beginning with the Ten Mile River and Webatuck Creek. Since mid-March the Catskill State Fish Hatchery truck has made seven stocking runs along the Ten Mile River, Webatuck Creek, Fishkill Creek, Sprout Creek, Wappingers Creek, Roeliff Jansen Kill and Crum Elbow Creek.

There are usually around 10 stops per trip and at each stop several hundred brown trout are thrown, flushed or hand carried and dumped from buckets into streams, creeks and ponds. On this last day of stocking, almost 5,000 trout ranging in size from 8 to 15 inches were put into the water.  

Fly fishing experts like Bob Mines from Mid-Hudson Trout Unlimited refer to these fish as “put and take� since they will be caught so quickly by fishermen once the weather turns a little warmer. Mines explained that it is not until the water is 55 degrees that cold-blooded fish perk up and start biting at bugs and bait. Once the water temperature rises above 65 degrees, the trout shut down and fishermen have to wait for cooler autumn days in late September.

Iron Mine Pond, just north of Millerton, was the last stop for this season in Dutchess County. The fish hatchery truck can’t get very near the pond so volunteers like Matt Jenks from the Millerton Gun Club filled up buckets with fish, put the lids on so the trout wouldn’t jump out, hiked down to the dam and created a bucket brigade to hand-stock the water with rainbow trout. Brynet Killmer from Irondale said that the pickerel and bass will eat most of them before the fishermen can even hook them.

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