TWRA Winter Trout Stockings

[Travis C.]

http://www.state.tn.us/twra/fish/StreamRiver/stockedtrout/stockedtrout.html


bd- if you check this out, I did a little looking into the Drakes Creek thing. Hendersonville was the 11th most populated city/town in the state and Gallatin was 22nd I believe last year via http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-Tennessee.html#Stadt_gross. Sumner County is one of the few counties without winter stocking sites in middle tn and the only one with 2 top 25 most populated cities in it. All the way down thru 25 the cities had either a winter stocking site or year round trout fishery nearby minus Gallatin and Hendersonville.

The closest a Hendersonville resident will have to drive to use this resource is roughly 25miles one way or 30mins in the car one way.

Interesting I thought and yet another reason Drakes needs to be stocked.

[spottedbass]

I'm right there with you. I've sent Drake's Creek as a suggestion to the TWRA agent Jim Pipas jim.pipas@tn.gov that is over the winter trout stocking program. Matter of fact I have emailed him twice about it and he has never replied at ALL.

There is tons of bank access all along Drakes Creek park. I have to either drive 40 minutes away either to Springfield or below Percy Priest. If I drive another 20 minutes I can be at the Caney Fork. It sure would be nice to only drive 10 -15 minutes to catch some winter trout.

[bd-]

This is something I've been thinking about for a while. I'm starting to work on it a little bit now. We will see if we can make it happen.

Drakes Creek has good public access and it's in a good location in a well-populated county.

The absolute ideal would be to talk them into trying it out as a delayed harvest stream. Put the fish in when it gets cool in late October, let everybody catch-and-release with flies and artificials through the winter, and then open it up to bait fishing and harvest on March 1.

I think that TWRA gets a TON of suggestions for winter-stocking locations and they don't have the manpower to respond to all the requests. I'm hopeful we can do a little legwork to set Drake's apart in the coming year.

We'll see.

bd

[spottedbass]

The absolute ideal would be to talk them into trying it out as a delayed harvest stream. Put the fish in when it gets cool in late October, let everybody catch-and-release with flies and artificials through the winter, and then open it up to bait fishing and harvest on March 1.

I don't really care for this idea. Now you are asking TWRA to enforce "special" rules. Makes it harder for anglers too. The trout regulations for winter stocking put and take just need to stay the same across the state.

[rodholder]

For what it's worth, access to the area below Percy Priest dam on the Hermitage side is blocked off due to repair work on the rip rap damaged during the summer. This may or may not be completed by the Dec 16 stocking date. Access from Stewart's Ferry Pike, on the Donelson side of the dam is a little intimidating, with road closed signs everywhere, but the road to the greenway walking trail below the dam remains open.

[bd-]

I don't really care for this idea. Now you are asking TWRA to enforce "special" rules. Makes it harder for anglers too. The trout regulations for winter stocking put and take just need to stay the same across the state.

It's a tradeoff. A delayed harvest rule is a little more complicated, but more people can get to enjoy the stocked trout over a longer period of time, too.

Georgia has had a lot of success with implementing delayed harvest on some of their winter-stocked streams. They have a whole set of "DH" stocked streams. Surely if the fishermen in Georgia can figure out a delayed harvest rule, then the fishermen in Tennessee can figure it out too.

bd

[Travis C.]

Several streams in east tn were or still are that way including the prong that runs straight thru G'burg.

It doesn't matter a whole lot to me either way as long as we can get the fish in there. But from what I read earlier they are at capacity to what the hatcheries allow. Unless one site goes away or they can come up with a reasonable stocking amount per location to still have high catch rates new places will be not happening.

So many places are over used and way under used for them to get a feel on whats "fair" amounts to everyone so until they can come up with that number all the available fish are being distributed.

[Catchingtrout]

It's a tradeoff. A delayed harvest rule is a little more complicated, but more people can get to enjoy the stocked trout over a longer period of time, too.

Georgia has had a lot of success with implementing delayed harvest on some of their winter-stocked streams. They have a whole set of "DH" stocked streams. Surely if the fishermen in Georgia can figure out a delayed harvest rule, then the fishermen in Tennessee can figure it out too.

bd I agree with BD. I grew up fishing streams in North Carolina and they too have a very successfull Delayed Harvest Program with very well marked streams and regs posted. The DH season goes from October 1 - the first Saturday in June then turns to General waters for the remainder of the year. DH really does meet the needs of all fishermen.