PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The wind blew a sharp chill through the air Wednesday afternoon but that did not stop the annual spring trout stocking at Onota Lake.

 

More than 75 community members enthusiastically released 600 rainbow trout, hailing from the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife's McLaughlin Hatchery in Belchertown.

 

Children leaped in the air as they waited in line for their white buckets to be filled with trout ranging in size from about a foot to up to 18 inches. 

 

"Fishies" some kids yelled and danced as they watched the fish swim into the lake energized by the sudden shock of being tossed into the cold water. 

 

"[The fish] like going in the water a touch harder than just being slowly slid in, just because it wakes them up. It's a physiological response," Leanna Fontaine, an aquatic biologist for Masswildlife's Western District, said. 

 

"So they like just kind of hitting that water and going so they actually handle it really well." 

 

Some of the older kids filmed themselves as they propelled the trout, giggling as the fish flew into the water. 

 

Parents, grandparents, and guardians helped and recorded as the youngsters walked down the sandy beach, buckets in hand, sometimes the same size as them, and gently dumped the trout into the water, sometimes narrowly missing. 

 

Although they were not yet strong enough to lift the bucket on their own to heave the fish, all trout safely made it to their new home.  

 

One grandparent thanked the organization members at the conclusion of the event expressing that the opportunity was the highlight of school vacation. 

 

Fontaine's daughter Isla Gagnon said she looks forward to accompanying her mom to work, enjoying how it is interactive and has given her a lot of happy memories.  

 

MassWildlife stocks trout two times a year, in the spring from mid- to late March through Memorial Day and two weeks in the fall at the end of September and early October. It will be releasing close to 470,000 rainbow, brown and tiger trout in lakes and rivers across the state this spring. 

Children and families are invited to help with the stock trout during school vacation week, which was the situation on Wednesday at Onota. Events were also held this week in Palmer, Plymouth, Westfield, Worcester and Woburn.

 

Trout stocking provides the opportunity to get people engaged with the outdoors, explore the area's waterways all across the state, and give them something to fish.

 

It can also "help take pressure off of other certain species, especially when they're getting ready to spawn because trout sometimes go into different waters," Fontaine said. 

 

"The species that are available early in the spring for people to be able to go after and the same thing in the fall."