Trout Being Stocked Now

[Dave B.]

Originally Posted by RichieFer

Anyone know if there going to still do the weekly stockings or are l the fish getting dumped in pre opener cause of this wonderful virus.

The in-season stockings will go on as scheduled, no changes at present. The pre-season stocking schedule was moved up 1 week as has been already discussed. There were several reasons for this, most of which involve the Covid-19 situation.

Given the present corona virus situation it was decided to begin the stockings early in case the Div. experienced a manpower shortage. Further, the numerous volunteers who often accompany the drivers to assist with the trout distribution will not be permitted this year. The NJ DEP commissioner has mandated that no volunteers be allowed to take any part in the pre-season stockings, as well as the in-season stockings until further notice. This includes any persons or groups who routinely undertake float stockings on various waters. The reason given is it’s to minimize any possible risk of infection of division personnel.

In addition to the above, since the calendar this year has pushed Opening Day nearly a week later into April, moving the pre-season stocking up a week will allow the staff at Pequest to better maintain their very tight and finely tuned production schedule. The fish presently in the raceways MUST go out to make room for the smolts to be moved out of the nursery building and continue to grow. Without this we would be in jeopardy of having both undersized and/or smaller numbers of fish available for next spring.

Hopefully this clears up much of the speculation and mis-information being bantered about.