Dozens of Colorado’s high-elevation lakes received thousands of cutthroat trout fingerlings last Monday and Tuesday as part of the state’s aerial stocking program.
The accompanying footage, produced by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, shows pilots releasing one-inch trout during precision water drops from heights of about 100 feet.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife stated on Facebook that the fish were raised at Rifle Falls State Fish Hatchery, and that survival rates are high because the fish are so light that they land in their new home waters with out much impact.
“They just have very little mass, so they’re kind of floating down into the water,” pilot Jerry Gepfert explains in the video, adding that survival rates during aerial drops are about 90%.
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Gepfert said that in one day his crew stocked 40,000 trout into almost 50 lakes “in a matter of a couple hours.”
Most of the lakes are above 9,000 feet and, in many cases, too remote to be accessed by stocking vehicles.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is on schedule stock nearly 275,000 trout into 240 mountain lakes by the end of summer. The effort is intended to enhance fishing opportunities in remote destinations.