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.
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.
