Rainbows back in stock

The tanker truck backed up to the boat launch at Deer Lake and extended a 10-inch-wide pipe over the water.

The driver opened the valves and turned on the fish-faucet. Within minutes, the lake’s rainbow trout population grew by about 2,600 for the lowland lake fishing season that opens April 29.

Nature is a beautiful thing, even prettier when the fish are biting.

“It made a nice difference last year,” said Jim Bennett, who lives on the lake.

He went fishing once or twice a week last season, he said, and caught at least three fish each time.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plan to release about 60,000 triploid trout into lakes and reservoirs this month and next. Those particular rainbows are called triploids because they’re bred with three sets of chromosomes instead of the normal two.

That makes them sterile and quick-growing – and a prize for fishermen.

The triploids are raised at the Moses Lake Trout Lodge hatchery in concrete tanks and are fed twice a day. In less than two years, the fish grow to be 1 1/2 to 2 pounds, big enough to be released.

Chuck Thrap transports the trout in his 5,000-gallon tanker truck from the farm to lakes across the region. It’s aerated to keep the fish healthy on their journey – four hours to Deer Lake.

Thrap said the fish are confused when they spill from the truck into the lake, but “within an hour or two, they’ll spread around.”

Thad Elmore and his son Cameron watched Thrap release the trout. They just moved into a house on Deer Lake, so there will be plenty of fish in their future.

Elmore said he’ll clean and cook the fish, but his son has to catch them – a task that Cameron, age 12, is anticipating eagerly. “They’re all hungry,” he said.

“It’s going to be fun.”