Trout stocking delayed due to hot temps

Oklahoma’s trout stocking season that normally begins Nov. 1 each year is being delayed this year, said Richard Snow, assistant chief of Fisheries for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. This will delay the opening of the Medicine Park trout area.

Trout stocking is now tentatively set to begin Dec. 1, 2024, at ODWC’s six seasonal trout fishing areas. But the stocking delay for the seasonal areas won’t affect the state’s two year-round trout fisheries at the Lower Mountain Fork River and the Lower Illinois River, where conditions allow trout stocking to continue as usual.

Several factors contributing to higher-than-normal water temperatures have combined to prompt biologists to delay trout stocking this year, Snow said:

• Unseasonably warm daytime air temperatures are forecast to stretch into November, which likely will keep water temperatures higher than normal later into the season.

• Ongoing drought conditions across most of the state have lowered water levels in most waterbodies, which allows the sun to heat water more quickly than normal.

• ODWC’s trout fishing areas are more susceptible to wider water temperature fluctuations because they are smaller bodies of water.

Trout do not survive very long when water temperature is around 70 degrees F or higher. These cold-water fish thrive at water temperatures from 45 to 60 degrees. They will begin to be stressed in water above 60 degrees.

ODWC doesn’t produce trout in its four state fish hatcheries. But to offer state anglers an opportunity to catch trout, ODWC buys trout from hatcheries in states to the north and brings them to Oklahoma for stocking.

The costs of maintaining a put-and-take stocking program for this non-native species have risen greatly over the past decade. This year, ODWC will spend about $7 for each pound of trout it stocks during the season, and each trout stocked usually weighs a little more than a pound.

“We basically would be throwing money away to begin stocking them Nov. 1,” Snow said.

Seasonal trout stocking sites for 2024 are Sunset Lake in Guymon; Lake Watonga/Boecher Lake; Lake Carl Blackwell Turtle Pond; Robber’s Cave State Park; Medicine Creek; and Blue River Public Fishing and Hunting Area.

For more information on ODWC’s trout stocking program, go to wildlifedepartment.com/fishing/resources/trout-information.

Whooping Cranes to Move Through State

Each year, sportsmen, bird watchers, and other wildlife enthusiasts can join the Wildlife Department in documenting federally endangered whooping cranes as they migrate through Oklahoma. It is important for sandhill crane hunters to be aware that whooping cranes could migrate through Oklahoma and be roosting or loafing in hunting areas at any time throughout the entire season.

The 2,500-mile journey from nesting grounds in Canada to wintering grounds in coastal Texas can take nearly two months, with the first migrating family groups of cranes reaching Oklahoma in mid- to late-October. The birds may touch down in wetlands or grain fields for a few days to rest and refuel on crustaceans, other small animals, or grain before continuing on to Texas.

The small flocks of whooping cranes that migrate through Oklahoma are part of the only remaining naturally occurring population, known as the Aransas/Wood Buffalo population.

Whooping cranes are North America’s tallest bird, standing nearly 5 feet tall. These large, white birds have black wingtips that are seen only when in flight, and a “bustle” of feathers over the rump. Whooping cranes fly with their long neck and legs extended.

Sandhill cranes, close cousins to Whoopers are grey in appearance with a red hood on the head. Sandhills are smaller than whooping cranes and lack the black wing tips.

To report a whooping crane sighting, go to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservations website at wildlifedepartment.com and click the “report a sighting” link.