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10-08-02: Grand Lake anglers may hook a rainbow

By NANCY ALLEN
The Daily Standard

    Local anglers will be able to partake in a rare fishing experience starting next week.
    Five hundred rainbow trout will be stocked in a bay off Ohio 364 on the East Bank in Auglaize County near the first shelter house. The stocking will take place Oct. 17.
    And if the rainbow trout are received well by anglers this year, wildlife officials may stock the fish again next year, said Doug Maloney, a fish management supervisor with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
    The fish, which will measure 10 to 13 inches in length, are coming from the Castalia State Fish Hatchery in Castalia near Sandusky.
    "It's a good site (the bay) to do it because there are handicapped accessible fishing piers there, it's a confined area and the whole shoreline
is easily accessible," Maloney said.
    The division had the extra fish to put in the bay of Grand Lake St. Marys because another lake in Ohio that usually gets rainbow trout could not be stocked this year due to a dam being repaired, he added.
    Maloney said wildlife officials will place a net over a culvert pipe that connects the bay to the lake so the trout cannot swim out into the main body of the lake. Rainbow trout are native to the western part of the United States. During the last century the fish have been propagated and introduced to a lot of places. In Ohio, ODNR uses rainbow trout for stocking mostly in small lakes or ponds, he said.
    "We use them as pretty much of a put in and catch proposition," Maloney said. "We grow them up to a catchable size and hopefully they provide a lot of fun and enjoyment for a lot of families."
    ODNR began its trout stocking program in the 1960s in Ohio and they have been stocked in small lakes since the mid 1970s. In fact, Maloney said rainbow trout may have been stocked in Grand Lake St. Marys years ago.
    Maloney said rainbow trout stocking of Tawawa Lake in Sidney during the last four years has been well received by the public.
    Maloney explained that rainbow trout are a cold water fish and any left uncaught this year will likely perish next spring or summer once the temperature in the lake rises to 72 degrees or more.
    "Theoretically, they could survive until next spring, but based on past experience, the vast majority will get caught out in a couple to three weeks," he said.
    Maloney said rainbow trout are known as a strong, fighting fish that sometimes leaps out of the water when caught.
    Good bait to use includes artificial lures such as spinners or small spoons and jigs, and live bait such as night crawlers and red worms. Even canned corn and processed ready-to-use power bait works well, he said.
    "We hope people come out and get some use of it," Maloney said. "The fishermen who live in and around Celina and St. Marys will get to have some fun."
    Maloney said rainbow trout is considered good eating by many people.
    "A lot of people like to eat trout. It's for sale at fresh fish markets and restaurants all over," he said." It's pretty well respected for its taste."

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