Yup, water finally receeded enough for us to turn the little guys loose. We planted them all and were done by noon. Had a great turn out of volunteers to carry them up stream in the East and West branches of Fish Creek. We had club members and a few Boy Scouts who were working on badges or whatever they do. LOL Bagged the fish, squeezed out all the air and pumped fresh oxygen in to blow the bags up and create a super bubble of oxygen in with the fish for transport. Placed the bags on ice in buckets with newspapers in between to keep them cool and slow down oxygen use. Furthest stocking point was about 20 miles upstream and the fish seemed to do well. We put 300-500 fry to a bag. Right now I'm chilling with my second gin and tonic and resting my old bones. We try to give each fish his own rock in the boulder strewn waters. It's tough walking and beats you up carrying a couple 5 gallon pails. It's warm so I just wore shorts and a pair of Simms wading boots. 65 degree water was comfortable. But as of now.... the fish are all free and swimming with nature. Here's a link to some of this years stuff. Pictures and videos of today will be posted later. Greg Hardin of Hardin Furniture( a big supporter of our club and efforts) wasn't available today for photo ops as he was on vacation. He was laid on for last week but we had to cancell because of dangerous waters. We always take an opportunity to thank the boys that organize Spey Nation here on the Salmon River in NY. They have donated the proceeds from their gathering the last 3 years to our club. The last 2 years it's been around $4000 plus or minus. They're a great group and put on some fantastic seminars. Lots of raffle prizes too with the grand prize being a $6000 trip to Spey Nation Lodge in British Columbia. These guys are SO good at what they do. I am also including a link to their site for you Fly fishermen. For you Spey guys... check out the videos of Andrew Moy in his seminars. There are several of them. This boy is GOOD..... he's fantastic and really explains it well for the beginner and intermediate 2 handed rod boys. If you click on the link and then on the link under The NAtion Speaks on the right you'll see 2 videos you can watch. As you watch one and then the other the next will appear. There are like 7 or 8 I think in all by Andrew. They also bring in a couple guys from like Oregon and Ireland and such things to do seminars every year. Really REALLY good stuff. Just a gather of a bunch of folks who love their 2 handed rods. All the manufacturers show up with rods rigged and ready to go. You can pick up any rod from any of them and take it to the river to try out as long as you like. A day of free food, burger and hotdogs and cold beer. Lots of rods and fly stuff raffled off. Last year I won a swithc rod.... this year 250 dollars worth of fly tying stuff. They must have given away 15-20 rods and all sorts of other stuff. Wonderful day again this year. It was last week. http://www.fishcreeksalmon.org/Hatching-salmon-2011.htm http://speynation.com/spey-nation-2011/
Has to be really rewarding when you catch one of your stocked fish. What is the estimate on the number or percent of fish that survive to catchable size after the stocking?
