Fishing, News, Recreation

Area fishing spots stocked

Area anglers take note: Three regional bodies of water were recently stocked with legal-size trout by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife.

The state agency doesn’t disclose the exact date a pond or lake is stocked, but gives a date range of a week.

First up: Gales Creek’s Dorman Pond, located on Highway 6 just west of the Gales Creek Road and Highway 6 junction. There, ODFW says that at some point between May 1 and May 5, 1,332 trout were deposited in the man-made pond—formerly a gravel pit—that draws large crowds in the spring and summer.

To the south, Hagg Lake, already stocked several times this spring, was enfished with 2,335 legal trout and a further 1,000 trophy trout—rainbow trout of at least 15 inches in length—in the same time frame.

And to the north, Vernonia Pond was the recipient of 5,500 legal trout that week as well.

A full trout stocking schedule can be found online.

Coming up next: The second Free Fishing Weekend of 2023 is June 3 and 4. On those days, fishing, crabbing, and clamming is free to all residents and non-residents, meaning no fishing licenses or tags, including a Combined Angling Tag or Columbia River Basin Endorsement are required.

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Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.

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