West Virginiaâs trout anglers will get an early Christmas gift this year.
Because of a surplus of trout in the stateâs hatcheries, Division of Natural Resources officials will conduct special trout stockings in 11 rivers this week. An estimated 15,000 pounds of trout will be stocked.
Jim Hedrick, the DNRâs hatchery supervisor, said hatchery production this year was good â almost too good, in fact.
âWe need to make more hatchery space available,â he said. âWhen we get this many fish in our hatcheries, they grow more slowly than we would like. Stocking these fish now will free up some space and allow us to grow bigger fish during the spring stocking season.â