NEW YORK -- The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced on Friday, March 21st that trout season is set to kick off on April 1st. Stocking is in full swing right now, with roughly 1.9 million catchable-size brook, brown, and rainbow trout stocked in ponds and streams across the state from mid-March through early June.

“While anglers willing to brave the cold can enjoy catch-and-release fishing for inland trout all year, the April 1 opener of the harvest season is still a much-anticipated date in New York,” said Acting Commissioner Amanda Lefton, adding, “This is the true beginning of a long-awaited spring and a perfect time to get outside and enjoy time along a waterway near you.”

The release comes despite an unknown number of brook trout that needed to be called at hatcheries, including the hatchery in Bath, due to a parasitic infection called whirling disease. State officials say they believe the parasite was introduced to the Randolph hatchery by a wild trout. 

As a result, trout transferred to Bath from Randolph were culled. To help make up the difference, surplus brown and rainbow trout are being released in some streams to make up the difference. 

Going forward, the DEC says staff are already developing strategies to mitigate potential outbreaks of the disease at hatcheries in the future. Along with issues with brook trout, the DEC says drought conditions in 2024 caused water supply constraints at some hatcheries, inhibiting brown trout growth.

That means many stocked brown trout will be less than the desired nine inches in length at the time of stocking the DEC says.