It’s a gift that keeps on giving several times throughout the wintertime season here in Texomaland. And while it might not carry the same importance as a silver bell — like the first gift of Christmas given by Santa in the classic holiday movie, The Polar Express — it’s still an important December delivery, nonetheless.
Even if it comes by truck down local roads, and not by a train heading for the North Pole.
With the annual Christmas holidays serving as a backdrop, the gift giving by TPWD began yesterday with the first of several annual stockings of rainbow trout by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Inland Fisheries personnel into area waters. Those deliveries might not seem like much as the slippery trout slide into cold water, but the program is one of the biggest fishing gifts that the state agency can deliver to anglers each year as cold air temperatures and cold water collide.
“TPWD stocks catchable sized fish during winter months to create unique winter angling opportunities throughout Texas,” said Carl Kittel, TPWD Rainbow Trout Program Director, in an agency news release.
“Rainbow trout love cold water and can be caught on a variety of baits and lures (worms, commercially available pastes, corn, spinners, spoons, flies and more), and are great to take home and eat. Our winter rainbow trout program has been a favorite of anglers for over forty years.”
Throughout the state, the regulations for the annual wintertime trout stocking program include no minimum length limit and a daily bag limit of five (5) trout and the need for a valid fishing license and a freshwater fishing endorsement. (Editor’s Note: anglers under 17 years of age are not required to have a license according to TPWD, and fishing licenses and endorsements aren’t required of anyone fishing within a Texas State Park).
Local anglers might also want to note the requirement of anyone fishing in a designated Community Fishing Lake — and we’ve got several of those here, including Waterloo Lake — having no more than two fishing poles out while enjoying a day on the water.
Also note that if your angling plans take you to the Guadalupe River tailwater stream below Canyon Dam near New Braunfels this winter, special regulations are found there on certain parts of that picturesque Hill Country trout stream.
In addition to the Guadalupe River tailrace, trout will also be stocked this winter season into several other Lone Star State rivers including the Frio, the South Llano, and the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. There’s also the Possum Kingdom Tailrace on the Brazos River north of Strawn, Texas, another opportunity for trout anglers — and especially those with fly rods — to chase trout without making a lengthy trip to the Rocky Mountains.
With the statewide Nov. 23 to March 3 stocking program beginning a few weeks ago around Thanksgiving — and with a total of 337,469 rainbow trout scheduled to be stocked statewide this season — the first scheduled deliveries of catchable sized rainbows to the Texomaland area began yesterday in both Denison and Pottsboro.
In the city of Denison, Thursday, December 15 was the first scheduled delivery date — do note that delivery dates can be altered due to stocking availability, weather, transportation issues, etc. — for trout this season, with something in the neighborhood of 1,433 rainbows being stocked at the city’s Waterloo Lake Park Pond.
Other stocking dates in Denison include Jan. 8, 2023; Jan. 29, 2023; and March 5, 2023, although once again, the actual dates could be adjusted a little bit since those final three stockings are in conjunction with three trout derbies being put on by the Denison Parks and Recreation Department.
In all, a total of 5,742 rainbow trout will find their way into D-Town’s Waterloo Lake Park Pond this winter season, all of those trout coming from the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens.
In Pottsboro, yesterday’s mid-December date also marked the pre-Christmas delivery for a total of 1,100 rainbow trout, stocked into James G. Thompson Park Pond. FYI, those Pottsboro community rainbows also come from the TFFC in Athens.
Early next year, TPWD inland fisheries crews will stock a total of 1,000 rainbow trout at the Johnson Branch Pond #2, a small water body at the Johnson Branch of Ray Roberts Lake State Park. That stocking date will take place on Jan. 8, 2023.
And finally, anglers in Sherman will see their rainbow trout get delivered early next year in late February when TPWD will bring 1,070 rainbow trout — again, from the TFFC in Athens — to the Pebblebrook Community Park Pond on Feb. 26, 2023.
Also as an FYI, aside from the local stockings here in Grayson County and other surrounding water bodies here in North Texas, the only other area option to chase rainbow trout in the local region is during the November through March trout stocking season on the Blue River near Tishomingo. That Oklahoma stream carries its own story, its own set of regulations, and we’ll focus on that topic in this space sometime soon.
But for now, be thankful that we’re able to fish for rainbows in local waters over the next few weeks, thanks to the Creator’s passage of the seasons and because of the long-running program that TPWD has run for four decades now.
While the trout fishing we’re talking about here might not be as picturesque as a Colorado, Wyoming or Montana trout stream, the travel costs aren’t near as much either. And keep in mind that this is a put-and-take program, meaning catching and cooking is encouraged since the trout can’t survive in Texas waters outside of the winter season.
And since these are hatchery trout, TPWD points out that it doesn’t take a lot of sophisticated fishing equipment to hook and reel in a rainbow trout most of the time. The Austin-based agency (www.tpwd.texas.gov) reminds anglers that the put-and-take rainbows can be caught using simple and light tackle, various small lures or natural baits, and, of course, on handtied flies cast with a fly rod.
While the trout are generally easy to catch the first day or two after stocking, they can get a little more persnickety as time wears on, so having an assortment of flies or an array of baits and lures can help.
If you plan on keeping trout for the table — and they’re certainly not bad to eat — you’ll want to keep a stringer of some sort and/or a small cooler and some ice handy to keep your catch fresh until you get home.
Once you’re back at home, dress them out with a small Rapala style filet knife; scrape the scales off of the trout and rinse them out; cut off the head, tail, and fins; and cook them with one of several simple recipes you can find on websites like GameandFishMag.com.
The bottom line here is that it’s Christmas time and TPWD is in the gift giving mood, bringing a supply of rainbow trout to area waters over the next few weeks and months. So why not get out, keep it simple, and appreciate a rare angling opportunity that comes only a few times a year deep in the heart of Texas?
That’s the goal of the annual TPWD put-and-take rainbow trout program each year, to deliver a chance for the Lone Star State’s anglers to catch one of our nation’s most beautiful fish and to enjoy something that doesn’t find its way to Texas all that often.
With that opportunity coming to a small body of chilly water somewhere near you here in Texomaland over the next several weeks, get out, cast a line or a fly line, and catch a limit of fish as beautiful as the rainbow.
Because with a few thousand rainbow trout coming to town starting this December, it’s certainly one of the most wonderful times of the year. To be a Texas angler, that is.
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