KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Fishing novices and experts gathered at the Fountain City Lake on Friday, in hopes of catching a trout.
It's part of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency's winter fish stocking program.
Matt Cameron, a TWRA spokesman, said about 350 trout were put into the lake. He said the fish, which are rainbow trout, came from the Buffalo Spring Fish Hatchery.
"We're trying to create an urban fishery for folks to come out and enjoy trout fishing," said Cameron. "East Tennessee is blessed with plenty of rivers and streams and natural places to fish. But not everybody has access or the ability to drive and go there. So we feel like identifying spots like Fountain City Lake here, it gets cold enough in the wintertime and plenty of folks around to enjoy that we can create a good opportunity, a good trout fishing experience, and hopefully folks will enjoy it. And maybe they want to go try it somewhere else."
In addition to the Fountain City Lake, Cameron said Pistol Creek and the Greenbelt Lake were also stocked. Fishing enthusiasts gathered at the lake waiting for the fish to be put in.
"They have the wintertime trout stocking here that they've been doing for the last three or four years that come and put a couple hundred in here," said Bob Proffitt, an avid fisher. "And it makes for good fish and opportunity for the young kids or I've seen a lot of disabled vets out here, patients, so it's a good opportunity. And you know, I've just recently been retired so people like me, you can just come and flip your line out there and catch them. That's the objective."
The City of Knoxville has invested around $1 million into restoring Fountain City Lake. Previous algae and invasive weed problems were also addressed.
"The Fountain City Lake is kind of a cornerstone to Fountain City, and it's a very popular place, and it fell into a little bit of disrepair. Fountains weren't working," said Chris Howley, the Deputy Director of Engineering for the City of Knoxville "And we did have a lot of algae issues, and we had a lot of complaints. And so we did a pretty substantial investment, which included a lot of what you see behind me, where we introduced these wetland features into the lake, which did a number of things."
Howley said the fountains were repaired, and crews reduced the areas where the water was shallow in the lake. He said the shallow areas were where algae usually grew. He added that this also makes the water cooler, which also helps with algae management.
"The other things that it does is, the water is able to, the roots from the wetlands areas, is able to kind of infiltrate and absorb the various fecal matter from the ducks and the geese and the fish and absorb that in," said Howley. "So it removes nutrients from the water, which also helps reduce the amount of algae we have."
Community members have expressed concerns about dead fish in the lake before the winter fish stocking. Howley said they haven't found an exact reason.
"We have not identified that there's a source that is causing that to occur," said Howley. "And it really doesn't occur that frequently, but it does. It does happen from time to time and it's hard to say what is causing those types of events, but fortunately, they're few and far between."
TWRA said trout aren't meant to live in the lake forever. Cameron said once the weather starts to warm up in the spring, the water gets too warm and fish usually won't survive.
"It's designed for a put-and-take type fishery. These fish aren't put in here to grow and to reproduce or anything like that," said Cameron.
The trout will be restocked in January and February. There will be another 350 trout added on a day chosen in both months.