Here’s why local lakes are teeming with trout

Brad Dearden is being asked to make a delivery. It’s something the avid fisherman and 30-year fisheries professional does often.

When the message comes in, he eagerly walks into the yard at the Summerland Trout Hatchery, and lifts a large metal lid on the ground.

Inside are thousands of tiny, wiggling rainbow trout.

Dearden and his team play a key part in keeping the recreational fishing industry alive and well in the Okanagan.

“We put fish into lakes to offer anglers an opportunity to catch fish,” he told Kelowna10. “We see the enjoyment factor in that. We love to see kids getting out there, families, whoever to come out and enjoy this opportunity to catch fish in our local, regional lakes.”

The order Dearden received on the day Kelowna10 visited him was for 5,000, all-female fry to go to Boot Lake, west of Peachland.

After loading the fish from the hatchery into oxygenated tanks in his truck, Dearden made his way to the lake via a gravel road.

Once he arrived, he backed his truck up to the beach and sent the small trout rocketing down pipes and into their new home.

The Summerland Hatchery, in operation since 1927, is one of only six across the province. The facility contains hundreds of thousands of fish and delivers to lakes across the Okanagan.

The teams collect eggs from brood stock locations like Pennask and Beaver Lake, which are fertilized and incubated at the hatchery. The fish are moved to different tanks depending on their stage of development and can be sent to the wild when they are as small as two grams.

Many full-grown trout, weighing about 250 grams, are brought to Shannon Lake in West Kelowna a few times a year. Other local lakes the hatchery delivers to include Rose Valley, Beaver, and Silver.

Anyone going out to reel in their dinner is required to buy a fishing license first. In doing so, it ensures the fish keep getting stocked.

“One hundred per cent of freshwater fishing licensing dollars come back to Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. [so] that we can put that money back into stocking lakes, so people catch fish and love fishing when they’re out there,” outreach clerk Jodi Mousseau said.

Mousseau works with different communities to teach kids how to fish and educate them about the program. She said the hatchery enjoys attracting people to the sport, even lending out rods for people to try it out.

Another enthusiastic fisher, Mousseau fondly remembers casting a reel with her grandpa. She said the activity is a simple but effective way to get people in touch with nature.

“I think anytime you can get children outdoors and away from screens is a definite bonus,” she said. “I think it’s really exciting for the younger generation to learn how to catch their own dinner and prepare it.”