Surplus Trout

[Dave B.]

Originally Posted by thmyorke1

Did they state where they'll be stocking them or is it just a heads up for the end of the season?

They'll be going in along with the regular stockings on whatever waters are still being stocked.
Nearly every year the folks at the Pequest hatchery exceed their production target for the spring season so the surplus fish are distributed along with the regular stockings during the last 2-3 weeks of the spring stocking season. There are a few reasons they hold off until the end of the spring stocking schedule. Among them are they want to be sure they have sufficient fish to complete the spring schedule as well as to hold for the fall stocking in case some unforeseen event takes place at the hatchery. As well the last 2 weeks of stocking have the lowest allocation numbers so there's actually room on the trucks for additional fish without risking mortality losses due to overloading.

They have been doing these surplus stockings for a long time but they only began publicizing them last year. The folks at Pequest have the production process so finely tuned that they have been exceeding the design capacity for the facility almost since it went online, all without sacrificing either quantity or quality. It was a major undertaking to convert the production schedule to accommodate the change to 2 year old fish for the fall/winter stocking programs some tears ago but they pulled It off without a hitch. Definitely a skilled and dedicated group there, as well as the folks at Hackettestown but that's a story for another thread.