With the subsiding of the toxic blue-green algae problem, Veteran’s Memorial Lake in Great Bend will again receive regular stockings of rainbow trout as part of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism’s winter trout program. The first fish were delivered Tuesday morning.

The lake has been on the list to receive trout stockings during the Nov. 1-April 15 trout fishing season, but blue-green algae blooms in recent years convinced biologists to stock trout in Great Bend’s Stone Lake instead, according to the KDWPT.

This year, Stone Lake received the first trout stocking. However, Veteran’s Memorial Lake has been removed from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s blue-green algae list, so KDWPT has added the lake back into the trout program. 

Stone Lake will not receive additional trout stockings this year.

“We have a plan to get the lake back to normal,” said Public Lands Director Scott Keeler. “First will be the trout and then we will keep building on good variety of predator and prey fish to keep things balanced.” 

Tuesday, KDWPT delivered 528 pounds of 10-14-inch trout and 60 pounds of 14-plus inch trout.

“These Rainbow Trout are good sturdy fish a great place to start since there have been some little feeder fish reproducing since the fish incident last year,” Keeler said. The lake experienced a massive fish kill in August of 2014 when algae depleted the oxygen and thousands of fish died.

In addition to a fishing license, anglers age 16-74 who are fishing for and possessing trout in both Veteran’s and Stone lakes must possess a trout permit during the trout season. 

The daily creel limit is five trout per day. Anglers 15 and younger are not required to have a trout permit, but they may keep only two trout per day.

The 2016 trout permits went on sale Tuesday and are valid through the rest of 2015 and all of 2016.

For more information, contact Keeler at 620-793-4111.