Area youth help stock coaster brook trout in Whittlesey Creek. - FWS photo

Iron River NFH biologist, Angie Baran, transfers adult coaster brook trout to Robert Quinlan for stocking in Whittlesey Creek. - FWS photo

This May, when water levels were stable and insects beginning to hatch, twenty thousand 1.5 inch long spring fingerlings from Iron River NFH and 50 adult coaster brook trout from Genoa NFH were given new stomping grounds when Service biologists and volunteers from Trout Unlimited, Northland College, and Ashland schools stocked them in the Whittlesey Creek watershed. 

The stockings are part of a cooperative experiment between the Service and Wisconsin DNR to determine if a migratory population of brook trout can be established in Whittlesey Creek through stocking several different life stages of Lake Superior strain coasters, protective regulations, and habitat improvements.

The stocking crew undertook the annual blood letting ritual and forged clouds of mosquitoes and hatching black flies to transfer the fish safely to suitable stream habitat.  The fingerlings were stocked in upstream reaches which provide suitable rearing habitat for juvenile trout and salmon, while the adults were placed further downstream in areas with deeper pools and larger forage are present.  Biologists are hoping the fish will leave the stream, feed and grow in Chequamegon Bay and Lake Superior, and return to spawn in the creek. 

To assess the status of the fish community and estimate abundance of trout and salmon, Wisconsin DNR and Service biologist with help from Trout Unlimited volunteers conduct a survey each September in Whittlesey Creek.  In addition, Ashland Fishery Resources Office has placed underwater video camera in the stream to detect upstream and downstream movement of fish.