Stocking up

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation crews pump 14,600 Steelhead trout into Sandy Creek in Hamlin, near Hamlin Beach State Park on April 29. That same day, 5,000 Steelhead were released into Salmon Creek in Parma. On April 30, crews returned to Sandy Creek with 57,000 Chinook salmon fingerlings. The Steelheads are one year old and approximately 25 of them weigh one pound. They'll likely grow up to 27 pounds in size at maturity. By season's end, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will have stocked the following numbers of fish along the south shore of Lake Ontario: Atlantic salmon - 82,000; Brown trout - 443,000; Chinook salmon - 1.76 million; Coho salmon - 257,000; Lake trout - 456,000; Rainbow/Steelhead trout - 681,000. The fish are raised at the Salmon River Hatchery north of Syracuse and Caledonia Fish Hatchery in Livingston County, the oldest hatchery in the Western Hemisphere. Photograph by Walter Horylev.