Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
BILL GOBIN, right, of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, watches Thursday as brown trout are released into Saxon Harbor. DNR employee Gervase Thompson releases the fish from the truck.
SAXON, Wis. - The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' brown trout stocking program shifted to Saxon Harbor on Thursday.
Trucks from the DNR's Brule Fish Hatchery arrived around noon with 25,000 browns that were released into the harbor and Lake Superior.
That was good news because some area fishermen feared the brown trout stocking effort would be suspended at the harbor.
Bill Gobin and Gervase Thompson stocked 6-inch fish from a truck with a tube near the main boat landing, while other workers in boats sailed offshore to release the trout.
Gobin said the Seeforellen strain of fish was chosen because it has shown the best results in Lake Superior. "We've had the best luck with the Seeforellens," he said, compared to other strains such as the St. Croix.
The Seeforellens are a hearty strain that grow rapidly and return to spawn later in the fall than other brown trout and salmon species. Seeforellens mature in four years and their late spawning runs usually come after the big coho and chinook salmon runs, so there's little competition for spawning grounds.
"They'll come back in November and into December," Gobin said.
That means shore fishermen and anglers in small boats can catch the fish at a time of year when other species aren't available.
Gobin said Seeforellens are stocked away from streams so they don't make runs and compete with other species.
The water temperature in the lake was around 45 degrees for Thursday's fish planting and Gobin was pleased to hear there haven't been a lot of big birds around the harbor to gobble up the small browns.
