SHELBURNE FALLS — Connecticut Senior Fisheries Biologist Neal Hagstrom comes to the next Trout Unlimited meeting to talk about the successful 23-year “survivor strain” brown trout program on the Farmington River.
The public is welcome to attend the meeting on Sept. 27 at 6 p.m. upstairs at the Eagles Club, 52 State St. The talk itself begins at 6:30, and the public is welcome to attend.
Since 1995, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has been trying to bring wild brown trout back to self-sustaining levels in the Farmington River by catching adult wild brown trout at spawning time each fall. To collect the fish, they apply a mild electro-shock to the river to stun the fish, and collect only prime specimens of mostly wild and previous survivor-strain browns. They are taken to the state’s fish hatcheries and bred; then the adults are returned to the river several months later. Their offspring are also stocked later in the river, when they are somewhat larger.
Hagstrom will talk about how the program started, its challenges and how it has been successful. Today, it is estimated that about half the brown trout in the Farmington River are wild, according to Michael Vito of Trout Unlimited.
“Given what the Deerfield River Trout Unlimited is learning about its own brown trout through its own spawning studies – a second, more expansive study will commence this fall – the survivor strain study is certainly a timely topic for discussion,” Vito said.