THROWING A ROUND

Earlier on the morning of April 18, a drive through Todd Park might have revealed a little something different.

Up and down Wolf Creek, which winds its way through Todd Park and eventually links with the Cedar River, anglers were casting a line in the hopes of catching a few of the newly stocked trout.

The season opener revealed a fishing opportunity that hadn’t been attempted for years, but work between the Cedar River Watershed District and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was able to put trout once again into the ribbon of a creek.

And by all appearances it was a success.

“It was really busy,” said Watershed Technician James Fett. “My wife and I got there in the afternoon and there were a dozen or so people fishing when I got there. We heard it was a lot busier in the morning.”

Fett was one of many working to bring trout into the stream. In 2017 he started the proces including putting an eye to temperatures of the river and found that the habitat was right for trout.

After a couple years of research it was decided that the DNR would stock Wolf. Those stockings came in two different waves: the first not long before the opener and the second coming after the opener.

In all, 900 trout were stocked, turning Wolf Creek into a put-and-take creek, a phrase which means that it’s unlikely that trout would ever become a stream with a self-sustainable trout population and instead would need to be stocked year after year with ready to harvest fish.

The habitat proved good for the fish according to Craig Soupir, Waterville Area Fisheries Supervisor.

“The fish handled the stocking well and were actively feeding and being captured by anglers right away,” Soupir said. “So that is what we want to see.”

All of this paints an optimistic future for the trout and the stream as an active fishing source. Stocking for the year has come to an end, but reports are still coming in that people are catching trout meaning they haven’t left the area.

According to Soupir, plans are already in place to stock the creek again in 2021.

To help that along officials are looking at things that can be done to further improve habitat up and down the length of the stream.