{"id":74243,"date":"2019-09-06T09:56:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T15:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-alpine-lakes-stocked-with-fish-from-the-sky\/"},"modified":"2019-09-06T15:56:04","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T15:56:04","slug":"high-alpine-lakes-stocked-with-fish-from-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-alpine-lakes-stocked-with-fish-from-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"High alpine lakes stocked with fish from the sky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Parks and Wildlife stocks fish in more than 400 remote lakes across the state by airplane.<\/span>Courtesy of Hank Blum<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The last thing local photographer Hank Blum expected on a hike to a high alpine lake outside Silverton was a low-flying plane that dropped some unknown substance.<\/p>\n

But Blum, camera in hand, caught the flyby on video during his August hike to Eldorado Lake, which sits at about 12,500 feet in elevation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper shocked,\u201d Blum said of his initial reaction. \u201cWe thought it was search and rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the plane was one of Colorado Parks and Wildlife\u2019s fleet that is tasked with stocking remote lakes in the high country with fish.<\/p>\n

Steve Waters, a pilot for CPW for the past 15 years, said there are 460 lakes around the state that receive fish drops.<\/p>\n

CPW\u2019s fleet of four Cessna 185 planes alternates each year between stocking lakes in the northern and southern parts of the state. In two weeks\u2019 time, usually in September, the most ideal time to stock, CPW pilots stock about 230 lakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do nine lakes per load,\u201d Waters said. \u201cSo with four airplanes working, it goes pretty fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missions typically start early in the morning, when temperatures are cooler and winds are calmer, making it safer for flights.<\/p>\n

Pilots typically do a first flyover of the lake they intend to stock, looking for any obstacles and to judge wind direction, Waters said.<\/p>\n

If conditions are right, pilots will swoop back around to make the drop. The ideal speed is about 90 mph, Waters said, and airplanes should be about 100 feet off the ground. It\u2019s a tight window.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The fish) need to have enough time to fall to lose their forward momentum,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want them to hit the water straight down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of fish in each drop varies, depending on the lake. But on average, Waters said a load will carry 700 to 800 fish. It adds about 400 pounds to the plane.<\/p>\n

Stocking fish from an airplane at such high elevations can be extremely dangerous, Waters said, and if conditions aren\u2019t right, missions will be called off. Winds can be unpredictable and powerful in the high country, which can take a plane off its course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a whole lot to make it undoable and wait for a different day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Joe Lewandowski, spokesman for CPW, said airplanes started to be used for wildlife management purposes around the 1940s to stock fish in remote places, as well as to track big game. It became more commonplace in the 1970s with the advancements of radio collaring.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018You want them to hit the water straight down\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74243"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}