More Sterile Trout Released In Canada

British Columbia fisheries managers are going all-out to produce and release sterile trout in the province’s lakes.

At least 75 lakes, many of them well known to American anglers, have been planted with sterile fish in the Thompson-Nicola region the last couple of years.

The plants range from 1,000 to 35,000. Most of the rainbows and brook trout released last year were fry-sized, but some were yearling fish.

Because the program to stock lakes with sterile trout is new in British Columbia, anglers won’t see outsized fish for a year or so in most waters. Most of the sterile trout now in the lakes were released last year.

A few lakes were planted with sterile trout a couple of years ago. Those fish could be more than 15 inches long this year.

Sterile trout don’t grow any faster than normal trout the first couple of years of their lives. But as they mature, their growth rates surpass normal trout because they don’t undergo the rigors of spawning cycles.