Cold Water Fisheries - Trout Management

Ponds

Ballard, Foster, and Potomac Ponds are stocked annually with rainbow and brook trout in cooperation with NYSDEC. Approximately 300 brook trout and 400 rainbow trout are stocked in each pond in early May. These trout range in size from 8 - 10 inches and provide great angling opportunities to forest visitors through May and into June. By this time, most trout have been caught and water temperatures in the ponds become very warm and unfavorable for trout to survive. Fish surveys in the fall indicate virtually no carry over of stocked trout through the summer months and as such the ponds are managed as “put and take” fishery. Our records document that trout have been stocked in these ponds annually dating back to the early 1970’s. This is a very popular fishery with local anglers and their families, especially our annual Youth Fishing Derby.

Streams

The headwaters of many streams are located on the forest. Most of these streams are intermittent and provide only seasonal angling opportunities for rainbow and brown trout.

Warm Water Fisheries

Ponds

Many ponds on the forest contain a healthy population of largemouth bass. This is the result of a forest-wide stocking program in 1981 when approximately 20 ponds were stocked with bass. Fishery surveys in the late 1980's focused on documenting bass survival and identifying the ponds where bass were being sustained through natural reproduction This effort is still ongoing, but many ponds have been surveyed to date.

Our management objective is to maintain a number of quality bass ponds throughout the forest through habitat improvements and enhance recreational fishing opportunities by improving access, resource education, and interpretation. Ballard Pond is now handicap accessible, having a crushed stone trail leading up to it from the parking area as well as fencing around a portion of the pond. Supplemental stocking of juvenile bass is done as needed, based on information gathered from fisheries monitoring work done by forest personnel. Ponds that have received this kind of management include: Teeter, Ballard, Burdick, Sassafras, South Burnt Hill and Potomac ponds. Bass can also be caught in many of the other small ponds scattered around the forest.

Other warm water fish that can be caught in several of the ponds include: brown bullhead, yellow perch, and sunfish.

For more information about fisheries programs, contact Steve Roy, Forest Fisheries Biologist: sroy@fs.fed.us

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