Mossyrock Fish Hatchery specialist Mario Troche tosses a fish that died during the transfer into Fort Borst Lake on Monday morning in Centralia.
Mossyrock Fish Hatchery specialist Mario Troche uses a long plastic tube to filter one-pound rainbow trout from the tanker truck to Fort Borst Lake on Monday morning in Centralia.
Mossyrock Fish Hatchery specialist Mario Troche sets up a long plastic tube to filter one-pound rainbow trout from the tanker truck to Fort Borst Lake on Monday morning in Centralia.
One-pound rainbow trout are dropped into Fort Borst Lake by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on Monday morning in Centralia.
A rainbow trout that was injured during the transfer, is swept out of the bottom of the tank truck before being thrown into Fort Borst Lake on Monday morning in Centralia.
While retailers are stocking their shelves for the biggest shopping day of the year, fishery managers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are stocking up for those looking to snag something else entirely.
“This is a great opportunity to skip the malls, avoid the stress and enjoy a fun day on the water with family and friends,” Larry Phillips, WDFW inland fish program manager, said.
On Monday, WDFW Hatchery Specialist Mario Troche backed a larger tanker truck to the shores of the lake at Fort Borst Park in Centralia. He was carrying 900 rainbow trout, all weighing more than 1 pound and measuring 15- to 16-inches each. He’ll take three trips to the pond before he’s finished.
The fish were trucked in from the hatchery in Mossyrock, poured out of the truck and slid down the bank in a black plastic chute that looks like an unrolled but unopened garbage bag. The material allows the fish to move overland while being in water, thus protected from material that might otherwise injure them.
“I’ve done this with it being about 150 feet long,” he said.
Fort Borst Park Pond in Centralia and South Lewis County Park Pond in Toledo both are among the lakes being stocked. Nearby Battle Ground Lake and Klineline Pond in Clark County and Kress Lake in Cowlitz County have also been stocked for Black Friday.
The Black Friday fishing opener is one of several fishing opportunities the department has created through fish stocking efforts. WDFW typically stocks Western Washington lakes and ponds with about 125,000 fish in the fall and winter months.
The waterways will be closed from now until Friday.
WDFW expanded the stocking program this year in response to the positive feedback from the public.
For new stocking information, anglers should visit the department’s Twitter or Facebook page. Links to those can be found at: http://wdfw.wa.gov. WDFW also gives a weekly catchable trout stocking report at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/plants/weekly/.
