Free at last…
On Saturday, April 17th several students and I drove to the North Carolina mountains to release our trout. We got these trout (and the equipment to raise them) back in September 2009 with the help of the Rocky River Chapter of Trout Unlimited. And thanks to a program developed by Trout Unlimited, called Trout in the Classroom, my students have learned a good bit about water quality, nutrient cycling, and fish development.
While we started out with close to two-hundred sac-fry, we only managed to successfully raise nine healthy fish. We loaded them into a cooler, specialy equipped with two frozen 2-liter bottles (to keep water temps in the low 50′s) and an aerator (to keep the water well oxygenated). Check out our setup below:
Our Trout Transporter
We drove two hours to The Green River Preserve, then found a nice spot along the Green River to release the trout. We transferred them to a small minnow bucket, and walked them down to the river.
PDS Env. Sci. Students
Check out our short underwater video of the release of six of the fish into the Green River:
We released the remaining three fish into a small trout pond at the Green River Preserve base camp. Those fish will join other Rainbow Trout kept for the express purpose of teaching campers the joys of catching fish on a fly rod.
Thanks to everyone who helped us this year, but special thanks to Jim Mabrey (President of RRTU Chapter) and Sandy and Missy Schenck (owners of GRP).
