MassWildlife testing the Trout at the Quabbin and the Wachusett Reservoirs

Fish on top board is 29.1 Quabbin,Laker Yellow photo is 23.6 Quabbin,Laker and the bottom is a 24.2 Lake Trout from Wachusett. all safely returned, un-harmed. So the next time you break off by a freight train of a hit, just imagine one of these beauties did it !

This fall, MassWildlife will be sampling the waters of the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs in an ongoing effort to monitor Lake Trout populations.Each year with the help of DCR and a few volunteers, MassWildlife collects Lake Trout from the bodies of water to check the overall condition and growth rates of the trout. Field crews set nets on the spawning grounds starting around sunset and check them about every 20 minutes. Captured fish are then removed from the nets, placed in live wells and length,weight, and sex are recorded. In addition, a small tag is inserted into the fish that can be used to identify the individual if caught at a later date. If the same fish is caught next year, biologists will know exactly how much growth occurred in a year time period. Lake Trout are very slow growing fish and traditional methods of determining age ,( reading the rings on the scales) do not work well.