Weekly trout stocking schedule

Where’s the stocking schedule?

Our plans to begin posting the trout stocking schedule again have been scrambled by this summer's wildfires in the state. Several state-owned hatcheries were damaged in the fires, and thousands of fish were lost or released early.

It will take us a while to re-figure the current schedule to reflect these changes to hatchery production. We hope to have a 2021 schedule posted sometime in March.

In the meantime, any early season stocking will be noted in the weekly Recreation Report. As will lots of additional fishing opportunities that may not rely on on-going trout stocking in order to offer good fishing opportunity.

From this week's Recreation Report:

Best bets for fishing

• Winter steelhead are spread throughout most basins and rivers will be fishable this weekend. In fact, be prepared for low conditions in some locations.
• Winter trout anglers should focus on lower elevation lakes that don’t freeze and that were heavily stocked throughout the year. There should be holdover fish in most of these locations. Focus on low-and-slow presentations that give fish plenty of time to consider your lure.
• Trout anglers who prefer moving water, should focus on rivers that are open year-round and fish throughout the winter. Likely suspects include the lower Deschutes, Crooked, Metolius, Fall, Blitzen, Chewaucan and Wallowa rivers.