Spring is trout stocking time
Photo by ROGER PHILLIPS/Idaho Department of Fish and Game Jamie Carpenter from the Nampa Fish Hatchery releases trout into a pond.
Photo by ROGER PHILLIPS/Idaho Department of Fish and Game An Idaho angler handles a stocked cutthroat trout, which are meant to be kept by anglers, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. The department stocks thousands of rainbow trout annually in Panhandle lakes and ponds beginning in spring. Stocking usually takes place throughout the summer when the department dumps trout in the 10-inch range into put-and-take waters.
Tanks full of rainbow trout, the ubiquitous western fish species and a go-to stocking fish for game departments, will soon make the trip to local ponds and lakes in North Idaho.
Although Idaho Department of Fish and Game stocks trout in some Idaho waters year-round, the department jump starts its North Idaho stocking operations in expect-a-snow-squall spring, and stocking continues in ponds throughout summer.
The idea is to get fish in the water so people can harvest them, said state fishery manager Rob Ryan.
“It’s a put and take type strategy,” Ryan said. “We expect anglers to go catch them.”
Ponds and small lakes around Coeur d’Alene and the Silver Valley are easily accessible and located close to roads. Most of them can be accessed with a minivan, and the family-friendly, small water bodies are among the first places to be stocked.
Most of the stocked rainbows, which generally range around 10 inches, get caught in the first couple months, Ryan said. Some of the fish are tagged, and fishers who pull them out are urged to contact the department to report the tag number.
“We try to figure out how many of those go to anglers,” he said.
On days when no one’s looking, when no folding chairs and Scooby-doo spin rods darken the shoreline around the ponds — maybe on a Tuesday morning — an astute fly rodder could theoretically sneak in, break out the 4-piece, 4-weight and practice laying down some line for the snub nose risers. It’s best if no kids are around, because unlike small lakes, which are fair game for all, put-and-take ponds are ideally kid waters.
Ponds are located throughout the Panhandle from St. Maries to Clark Fork. The closest ones to Coeur d’Alene are here:
Stocking rainbows larger than 6 inches begins in May at Post Falls Park Pond along E. Fourth Avenue in Post Falls. Last year 5,500 rainbows were stocked in the half-acre pond that also holds bass and sunfish.
Day Rock Pond north of Wallace received 2,000 rainbow trout last year between May and August, and the 1.5-acre Lucky Friday Pond east of Mullan received around 3,000 trout last year. Stocking usually occurs May through August.
South of Osburn up the Big Creek drainage, Elsie Lake, which also has brook trout, was stocked with more than 3,000 rainbows last summer measuring more than 6 inches. Stocking usually starts in May.
Also in the Silver Valley, Lower Glidden Lake, accessed via the Burke Road-Canyon Creek Road is usually stocked starting in June. Lower Glidden received 2,000 rainbow trout bigger than 6 inches last spring and summer.
Along the Coeur d’Alene River Road, Steamboat Pond, about 11 miles north of Kingston at the edge of the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River is stocked usually beginning in May. Last year the 3-acre pond received about 3,000 rainbows measuring more than 6 inches.
Northwest of Murray, the half-acre Clee Creek Pond got about 1,500 rainbows more than 6 inches last spring and summer. Stocking starts in May.
St. Maries — Spicer Pond, named after the late Dave Spicer, an IDFG wildlife biologist who lived in St. Maries, is usually stocked beginning in May. Around 2,000 rainbow trout were stocked last year in the 1-acre pond a mile southeast of town, which also holds bullhead catfish.
Small lakes are fairly ubiquitous in North Idaho and a lot of them are targeted by IDFG stocking programs with a variety of fish including spiny rays, catfish, pike and muskie.
Covering around 500 acres in western Kootenai County at Hauser, Hauser Lake is stocked periodically with tiger muskie, and for several years in the late 1990s produced one record after the other. The current tiger muskie record at 44.25 pounds is from southern Idaho’s Little Payette Lake.
Hauser was stocked with 620 tiger muskie last fall. Most of the stocked fish are more than a foot long when they hit the water, usually at low densities.
Several northern lakes including Shepherd Lake near Sagle get tigers.
“They are fairly aggressive, so we stock them with the idea they won’t overwhelm what’s already out there,” Ryan said.
The popularity of rainbow trout shows in IDFGs stocking efforts that in North Idaho include Avondale in Hayden, Lower Twin Lake, Fernan Lake and Hayden Lake, which along with Spirit Lake is also stocked with kokanee. Kelso Lake north of Athol was stocked with 5,500 rainbows last year, Mirror Lake near Sagle got a combined 8,000 rainbows, kokanee and cutthroat more than 6 inches each in 2017, and Cocolalla was stocked with more than 23,000 cutthroat trout last year.