Anglers across the Upper Cumberland have a new reason to grab their fishing gear this winter as the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency stocking rainbow trout throughout the region.
TWRA Fisheries Biologist Connor Ballard said the agency releasing an estimated 75,000 rainbow trout statewide as part of its winter stocking program. Ballard said the program is designed to bring fish closer to urban areas throughout the winter months to promote fishing.
“We really want people to go out and utilize these fish and use this resource, and you know, harvest these fish and take them home for dinner,’ Ballard said. “So that’s kind of the goal, you know, we hope that folks are going out and taking their kid and they are having a good time and taking some fish home for dinner.”
Ballard said TWRA recently stocked Cane Creek Park Lake with an estimated 2,000 rainbow trout. He added that rainbow trout are ideal for winter stocking because they thrive in cold water.
“Those are kind of the conditions that we experience here in the winter,” Ballard said. “Trout, especially rainbow trout, they are gonna be happiest in water below 65 degrees. You know, once you get closer to 70 and even beyond that is really stressful on a trout and even lethal.”
Ballard said trout are being stocked in city park lakes, greenway streams, and state park lakes.
“Typically, in Tennessee, if you are going to catch a rainbow trout, you are going to the mountains of far east Tennessee, or you are fishing below a hydropowered dam in a cold tailwater fishery,” Ballard said.
Ballard said TWRA will also hold a spring trout stocking program. He said locations include the Calfkiller River, Mill Creek at Standing Stone State Park, and Pine Creek near Smithville.