Area anglers should be aware that in the coming weeks, three local bodies of water that are in or near this newspaper’s territory will be stocked with varying amounts of trout.
First up is Hagg Lake, near Gaston, which is being stocked (possibly right as this journalist is typing this) sometime between February 26 and March 1. The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife doesn’t typically note the exact date of a fish stocking, but rather the week in which fish will be stocked.
A whopping 12,000 legal-sized trout —that’s 8 inches — will be deposited in the body of water that was once Scoggins Valley. That’s enough fish for every person in the city limits of Banks, Gaston, and North Plains to have two each.
Meanwhile, a little closer to home, Gales Creek’s Dorman Pond — once a gravel pit, now a pond home to trout, bluegill, at least one turtle, and a lot of lost fishing lures — will receive 1,000 legal-size trout sometime between March 11 and March 15.
And to the north, Vernonia Pond or Lake depending on who you ask is expected to receive a shipment of 2,500 legal trout sometime between March 18 and March 22.
Find all this and more at myodfw.com/fishing/species/trout/stocking-schedule.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
