Enjoying a Trout Stocking Experience at Wild Acres Farm

 

MOA Member and Executive Director Jason White Unloading Trout at Stocking Event Credit All: Bill Rockwell

    After holing up indoors for most of cold and blustery January and February, it was a great pleasure to venture outdoors one spring-like day at the beginning of March and head for Ten Mile Creek at Wild Acres Farm in Clarksville, Pa.

The road down to the creek was fairly steep and somewhat rugged, but I didn’t bat an eyelash because I had my mind set on watching the stocking spectacle. At least 20 cars were already parked when I reached the stocking site; their owners were busy getting ready and anticipating the arrival of a large truck from the Cedar Springs Trout Hatchery in Mill Hall, Pa.

The Truck Arrives with c. 300 Trout from Mill Hall, Pa.

It wasn’t long before the truck drove in close to its scheduled 3 p.m. arrival time with close to 300 trout swimming in aerated bins. As the Marrianna Outdoorsmen Association members stood ready with storage chests on hand to carry the fish to their new home, MOA executive director Jason White stood on back of the truck netting several trout at a time, then dumping them into the storage bins for transfer into the creek.

“We brought in about 300 trophy fish running between 10 and 23-inches with an average length of 16-inches” said the truck driver.

MOA Members Casting for Trout

As soon as the stocking activities were finished, a number of members were already in the creek casting for trout. Jacob Fowler of Monongahela, a 20-year fishing veteran, says he enjoys the sport as a form of meditation.

Another member, Ryder Dziak of Cokeburg caught a 17-inch tiger trout just minutes after he started to fish.

“I caught him on a salmon egg I cured myself,” he added as he gently released the trout back into the water.

When the MOA first formed around 2005, the idea was to stock trout in a segment of Ten Mile Creek in Marianna. The goal was to raise enough funds to bring the fish closer to town and the people of the surrounding area. To raise funds to purchase some trout, members sold a $500 ticket raffle that year. As a result, they were able to stock $500 worth of fish in a two-mile section of Ten Mile Creek

Since then, members raise money through various fund-raising activities to stock a total of $60,000 worth of rainbow, brown, brook, palomino, patriot and tiger trout each year. The stocking events takes place one or two times each month between October and May using different hatcheries to allow for various strains of trout to share the ecosystem.

Just Caught and Soon Released Back into the Water

The trout are allowed to run freely up and down the creek, which the MOA manages along a 2-1/2-mile stretch. In addition to being sited near a limestone quarry, which benefits water quality, the creek has seen a number of enhanced improvements whereby MOA members installed ten different fish habitat structures with limestone boulders that deepened water pools and increased the oxygen content along the creek.

         “Our second fishing location along Daniels Run is a cold-water stream and the only one I know of in Washington and Greene County where trout can live 365 days a year,” White said.

Looking for better weather and more rain this coming summer, White said 2024 was a terrible year for fish due to the drought conditions of middle and late summer. Conditions were such that the MOA decided to let fishermen harvest the trout they caught during the dry season.

Normally, members are entitled to try their fishing skills on a catch-and-release basis. Non-members can also fish with a day pass that runs $60.

Enjoying Some Time Fishing on Ten Mile Creek at MOA Stocking Site at Wild Acres Farm

“Besides providing our members a lot of recreational enjoyment, our trout stocking activities have an economic impact on the area,” White said. “Not only do the hatcheries make money, but the local fish and tackle businesses do as well.”

For more information on the MOA, go to www.mariannaoutdoors.com or phone 724-579-0924. You can also hear White weekly in a radio show on Youtube.com on the MOA Outdoor Channel.