Lac La Biche anglers can now catch some trout without going too far from home.
Sustainable Resource Development stocked Alexander Hamilton Pond with 600 rainbow trout on Sept. 20 for recreational fishing purposes, said fisheries technician Ryan Boechler.
“It just gives you a different species of fish than what’s available to you,” Boechler said. “In Lac La Biche you can get your walleye, your pike, your perch, your whitefish, your burbot, and now you have an opportunity to catch rainbow trout right close to town.”
The trout are not a native species to the area and the fish released cannot reproduce, he said.
“We don’t want them to spawn,” Boechler said. “In case they get out they could end up in Lac La Biche … that’s not something we want to have happen.”
The fish are raised in the Cold Lake Fish Hatchery. Every year, the hatchery receives eggs, which it incubates and hatches. The fish are then grown to various sizes — depending on what’s requested by different biologists — and released twice a year. The hatchery raises one and a half to two million fish a year, including rainbow, brown and brook trout as well as some walleye, Boechler said.
Currently, walleye are being released into Lac La Biche Lake, he said.
