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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Many anglers refuse to store their fishing gear during winter. So, for those who don’t mind cool weather, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) stocks rainbow trout in selected lakes. On Nov. 14, MDC hatchery trucks delivered trout to several lakes in the Kansas City metro area.
The trout were raised at MDC’s Bennett Spring Fish Hatchery. Amid the pan-sized rainbows stocked at each lake are a few lunker trout. The big trout are culled from brood stock no longer needed at the hatchery.
Rainbow stockings on Nov. 14 in the Kansas City area included:
Trout are not a native Missouri fish. But they have been introduced to the cold, spring-fed, streams of southern Missouri. However, when winter drops water temperature cold enough to support trout, MDC stocks them in selected urban lakes and ponds. MDC makes those stockings in partnership with cities and counties to provide anglers additional fishing opportunities.
“You can catch them on bait fished on the bottom and you can catch them on jigs and lures on the top,” said Danny Griffin, a Kansas City angler who watched the trout stocking at Chaumiere Lake. “Sometimes I catch them pretty good and sometimes I don’t. It just depends on the weather.”
Griffen has fished for winter trout at Chaumiere Lake and at MDC’s James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area since 2012.
“It’s close to home,” he said.
Trout were also stocked at Honker Pond at the James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area. But that pond is for fishing by youths only. Youths must be 15 or under to fish at Honker Pond. They may keep trout up to a limit of four if they have a Missouri trout permit.
Some of the lakes will be stocked again in later winter months. The most up-to-date information on MDC’s winter trout stockings in the KC Metro Area is available by calling the trout hotline at 816-525-0300, press 2 at the recorded prompt.
Tips for catching winter trout in urban lakes are found in an online Missouri Conservationist magazine story, https://short.mdc.mo.gov/Zpq. For more information on trout fishing throughout Missouri, visit http://mdc.mo.gov.
