Thursday, December 19, 2013

Stocking Fish By Train


I was doing some research on a tip that smallmouth bass were one time stocked in a local stream. In my search I ran across this article. It goes over the history of stocking fish via train. I was surprised to find out fish were stocked coast to coast as early as the late 1800's. The technology as the trains progressed is very intriguing. 

"By the early 1920s, the fish cars had accumulated an impressive record. A 1923 report indicated that, over the previous 20 years, the output of the various hatchery activities amounted to 72,281,380,861 fish which were distributed by fish cars traveling 2,029,416 miles and detached messengers 8,104,799 miles."
~The Fish Car Era of the National Fish Hatchery System

The article is very interesting. One of my favorite parts is about hiring a crew of people to aerate the water by hand as a shipment of striped bass traveled across the country.

6 comments:

  1. That's so amazing! I would love to jump in the time machine and see what some of these rivers looked like 100 years ago.

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    1. Me too, Falls Lake didn't even exist. I wonder how far the shad and stripers migrated. They could have went into the Eno.

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  2. Kevin, this is very interesting. I never knew that this method of fish stocking ever occurred. I agree with you and Shea. What would it be like to take a step back in time to see from where we have came from in the fishing scene.

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  3. Although I find this interesting, I still wonder in amazement thinking that high mountain lakes were once stocked by plane and helicopter. That was an interesting article Kev, thanks.

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    1. I read about that too. I was amazed that the loss rate of airplane stockings was less than 5%. That had to be an interesting job. The wind in the mtns can be tricky.

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  4. Kevin
    What a great article, I never knew stocking of trout was occurring in that day and time. I wonder how many trout was lost before they made it to the streams? Hope you guys have a great Christmas up that way

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