Trout Above the Treeline

By Dale Allen, Regional Fishery Manager Southwest Region - McCall It seems that about once a summer, I get a call from an excited angler who tells me how they witnessed an odd event while fishing at a high mountain lake. The call usually starts with, "I was just getting going for the day and this crazy airplane came by, circled the lake a couple of times, and then made a dive toward the water before roaring away." "Yep," I reply. "You were fortunate enough to witness a fish stocking event at that lake." One of the Fish and Game's most popular fisheries programs is our Mountain Lakes Stocking Program. Annually, we stock about 260 mountain lakes in any year, mostly from aircraft. Statewide in 2005, 693 lakes were in the stocking rotation. Most lakes are on the schedule for stocking every three years, while moderately popular lakes are stocked every other year, and high- use lakes may receive fish every year. We use four species of fish in the program; sterile rainbow trout, Westslope cutthroat trout, a few golden trout and grayling. The fish are stocked as fry and average slightly over an inch long. Perhaps best of all, the Mountain Lakes Stocking Program is a bargain: on average it costs $31.50 to stock a mountain lake in the Southwest Region. The McCall Fish Hatchery stocks a majority of the mountain lakes in the state and it takes a great deal of effort to accomplish this task. During the winter, fish managers approve the list of mountain lakes to be stocked and a master list is developed. The McCall Hatchery orders fertilized eggs to be delivered in the spring from either Fish and Game brood hatcheries or a commercial trout supplier. The grayling and golden trout are obtained from another state's fishery programs. The eggs are hatched and the fry placed in large vats for rearing to appropriate size. Hatchery personnel do lots of trip planning to make the fish stocking flights as efficient as possible. On average ten stocking flights are arranged from the McCall Hatchery every August and September. Stocking flights are made by experienced commercial carriers that routinely fly Idaho's backcountry. On the morning of a flight, hatchery personnel are up well before dawn to prepare for the day's flight. Fry are counted into about a gallon of water and placed in plastic bags. Oxygen is added and the bags are labeled for the specific lake. Then, it's off to the airport where the bags are loaded in the airplane. If the weather is good, the aircraft is airborne at dawn to begin the planned route. One morning trip might involve stocking up to 18 lakes. The pilot and employee navigate to the lakes using GPS coordinates, maps and a compass. Upon arriving at their destination, they check the lake below them against their maps to verify their location. Then the pilot decides which way to approach and begins to reduce air speed by circling, losing both altitude and speed. On final approach, the fish are transferred from their holding bag to a hopper in the floor of the aircraft. The pilot slows to almost stall speed above the lake, usually below the surrounding tree line, and the fish are released from the hopper as the plane powers up to leave the lake. So get out and enjoy a fishing experience at one of Idaho's countless backcountry lakes. And if your outing happens to occur in the fall, watch for low-flying aircraft.