Brown Trout Graduate HS-AS
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Brown Trout Graduate HS-AS
ok, teasing with the title
Trout in the Classroom in Texas is in our 18th year. We have 25 schools from Austin, San Antonio, Boerne, Katy, Houston, New Braunfels, and Canyon Lake.
Our classes include elementary schools, and high school aquatic science classes. Saturday, our HS aquatic science teachers, some students, and some family members from Houston, Katy, Boerne and San Antonio met for lunch at the BBQ stand in Sattler, and together added about 700 brown trout fry to the river. Of course we did this with a permit, and Jimbo took my list to report the numbers to TPWD in compliance with our permit – Jimbo, what was our actual count?
Surprising weather, an unseasonably chilly day for the second weekend in May, the river was ripping, and we had a great time. A few photos to share.
Queuing up to order BBQ
Our entourage and coolers of baby browns
Hauling coolers to the river
We began by replacing half of the water in the coolers with river water, and giving the fish time to acclimate
The fish ranged in size from 1″
to over 3″
some of our classrooms had counted their fish beforehand, so we can pour them in
Coolers that weren’t counted, we had to net the fish and count on the fly as we released them – or you can net and release them just for the fun of it
Future conservationists at work
A Big Thanks to all the teachers and students this year
We still have 3 more classrooms of elementary schools, all planning weekday field trips, and more to report later…
Thanks for reporting this Ron, I forgot all about it. I is great seeing these kids earn about the life cycle of fish, not just in the classroom but actually putting them in a river to continue their life. It will be so cool to see if any smaller than stocked browns get caught in the future.
Thank you and the kids and their parents for doing this! 18 years?! THANKS!
TIC in Texas is a joint effort between GRTU and Texas Fly Fishers of Houston (FFF).
My buddy Matt handles all the footwork for Houston, Deer Park and Katy.
The Texas program was started 18 years ago by my friend Karen – I helped her set up the first tank, and after 6 years and health limitations, she volunteered me to take over…
A Major Thanks to Mr. D for letting us trample his lawn.
This morning, two 4th grade classes from New Braunfels Christian Academy brought their fish to the river. If I didn’t mention, our brown trout experiment this year had some hitches, and NBCA brought their one fish to the river.
Great place for a fish to live.
Jimbo arrived styling (with new cams and undisclosed hp)
NBCA 4th graders right behind
Some parents attended also – the river was really big today, 1640 cfs, and a more than a foot higher than last Saturday, though the fast water was beautiful.
The kids were proud of their one fish.
Even though he was a bit shy
The class prayed over their fish
And gave the honors to Ms. Holbrook of St. Mary’s Hall – her HS aquatic science class lost their fish this year.
In spite of the high flows, there was a quiet seam next to the submerged bulkhead, and more than these two adult trout were also attending
Finally made it through 700Mb of sequential frames shot yesterday, and wish I could show you all, but even a limited sampling is a lot…
Jimbo and I didn’t have to wait long – as in past years, Laurel Mountain Elementary brought the whole campus right after lunch and their morning tour of AE Wood hatchery – 3 buses worth – and 75 or so more brown trout.
They brought their cooler
and also Ms. Teague’s McNeil HS AS class
Can’t show all the kids, teachers and parents, but you’ll get the idea
With all the kids still, I explained our TPWD permit, the constrained coldwater ecosystem, and why it’s never a good idea to release aquarium fish, snails or plants into ponds, lakes and rivers.
More kids than brown trout, so teams of 3 each took a trout to the river
They did a great job, and the whole process ran very smoothly – glad I didn’t have to herd it – after they released their trout, the kids walked up the bank where Jimbo pointed out the adult trout in our current seam
a few kayakers were taking advantage of the big flows for a thrill ride
It went really well, it was safe, fun, and everyone had a great time. Afterwards, Jimbo treated me to Horseshoe Grill – best burger and tater tots on the river. One last classroom field trip is coming up on Monday – the elementary school located on the horseshoe bend.
Good work, guys. Nice to see the little trout and the little humans working together.
Alex
Brown Trout Fry Totals: from the first stocking were 873 and the second 71.
Jimbo
and one more school to go
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