By David Fleet

Editor

The annual stocking of brown trout in Kearsley Creek will include a few new locations this spring.

About 6,000 brown trout are expected to be released into the Kearsley Creek in mid-May at the Oakwood Road bridge, the east branch of the Kearsley Creek at Kent Road, and Countyline Road near Washburn Road.

The wild rose brown trout with an average size of about 7 inches will come from the Harrietta State Fish Hatchery located just west of Cadillac.

“Trout have been stocked in the Kearsley Creek since the 1980s,” said Joe Leonardi, Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries biologist. “By June or July the fish will be legal size to be kept. The Kearsley Creek is a marginal trout stream and very few trout survive over the winter given the water temperature, ice conditions and overall habitat of the area.”

Leonardi said the creek banks are key to their survival.

“Pollution is not as much of a problem in the Kearsley Creek as shade and the undercuts on the banks of the creek,” he said. “Any stream as the environment becomes more developed around it will prompt more erosion of its banks, thus reducing the area for trout to survive. It’s just part of the environment here in Oakland and Genesee counties which differs from the Au Sable River for example, in northern Michigan where the water temperature is more constant and area around it is more stable.”

The stocking is upstream from the Goodrich Mill Pond by design, said Leonardi.

“The water in the Goodrich Mill Pond is warmer—it’s like a big bathtub,” he added. “For that reason we don’t stock trout (in the Kearsley Creek) north of Goodrich toward the Atlas Mill Pond.”

The trout stocking locations are not likely to change in the near future, even with the addition of a new county park which features public Kearsley Creek frontage and access to the Atlas Mill Pond, added Leonardi.

Last year a grant for $540,200 was obtained by the Genesee County Parks and Recreation from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to purchase a 155-acre parcel on the north side of Hegel Road about 800 feet east of Gale Road. The Atlas Township property incorporates an abandoned Detroit Urban Railroad railbed as well as the Kearsley Creek and frontage on the Atlas Mill Pond.

“It’s unlikely any trout will be planted near the new park area in the township,” he added. “Rather, a survey could be taken of the fish in the creek and Atlas Mill Pond to determine which species exist now. My guess would be pike, bass and bluegill—it’s a very weedy body of water.”

Over the course of a typical year the DNR will stock roughly 20 million to 25 million fish weighing nearly 400 tons, including eight species of trout and salmon and four cool-water species such as walleye and muskellunge. DNR fish-stocking vehicles will travel nearly 140,000 miles to stock between 700 and 1,100 locations, according to the DNR.