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Hatchery releases 300 fish into Poirier Lake

Stocking lakes provides anglers with great fishing opportunities in Sooke
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Fish culture technician Chris Stone releases trout into Poirier Lake Thursday morning. The Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. stocks local lakes twice a year. (Kevin Laird/Sooke News Mirror)

The Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. released 300 rainbow trout in to Poirier Lake today to stock it with “catchable-sized trout.”

The fish are from Vancouver Island Trout Hatchery in Duncan, and about 20 centimetres long, weighing about half a pound each.

Most of the fish raised at the hatchery are rainbow trout, but a small amount are cutthroat trout.

The hatchery will be releasing 500 fish in to Kemp Lake and 500 in to Matheson Lake tomorrow.

“Stocking the lakes helps provide local anglers with great fishing opportunities,” said Tristan Robbins, hatchery manager. “For a lot of these lakes, the natural population can’t provide enough fish to keep the anglers happy, so we have to replenish it at a few times a year.”

Raising more than 250,000 fish each year, the hatchery stocks around 50 lakes throughout the Island, focusing more on urban lakes where more fishing takes place.

They stock lakes like Poirier twice a year; once in the summer and once in the fall. For more frequently visited waters, such as Colliery Dam in Nanaimo, the hatchery will release fish about seven times a year; three times in the spring and four in the fall.

“We are always excited to see the smiles on anglers faces when the fish are released,” Robbins. “And keeping the lakes full of fish means people will continue to get outside, go fishing and enjoy nature.”

All of the funding for the hatchery comes from anglers’ fishing licenses. To learn more, go online to gofishbc.com.



editor@sookenewsmirror.com

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Trout make their final destination into Poirier Lake. (Kevin Laird/Sooke News Mirror)