LIVINGSTON –The Roe Jan Creek was stocked with trout on Thursday, April 19. A group of volunteers met a truck from the Van Hornsville State Fish Hatchery at the Citgo on 9H in Blue Stores to assist with the release of 9000 brown trout.

The fish were raised at the Van Hornsville hatchery, one of twelve in the state. The Van Hornsville hatchery stocks streams in ten New York counties east of Herkimer.

This was the season’s first stocking of the Roe Jan Creek. Fish had been released into the Kinderhook Creek in earlier in the week.

DEC employee Dennis Wischman said that he wanted to avoid publicizing the exact locations of the releases because sometimes fishermen followed the truck around the county fishing in the exact spot where they were just released. DEC officer Lt. Liza Bobseine said that her officers would be patrolling the river to check for compliance with laws on limits and size.

Craig DuBois of the Van Hornsville Hatchery empties a net-full of brown trout from a bridge over the RoeJan. The fish don’t mind the drop and swim away quickly when they hit the water. Photo by David Lee