Snapshot: Flying Fish in South Kingstown

A splash breaks the morning stillness at Barber Pond in South Kingstown as Zack Morse, a fish culturist for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, launches trout from the back of the stocking truck. The pond is one of 110 locations the agency stocks around the state, releasing close to 60,000 fish before the freshwater fishing season’s opening day. Every year on the second Saturday of April, anglers young and old line the water waiting for the telltale tug of a prize catch. “You’ll see at places like Carolina Trout Pond, it’ll be multigenerational along the shoreline,” says Emily Lynch, public affairs officer for the DEM. Though wild brook trout occasionally turn up, most of the trout caught in Rhode Island’s lakes and streams begin life at one of four state hatcheries. Kenneth “KC” Fernstrom, senior fisheries biologist, oversees their journey through a series of holding tanks and raceways before they’re big enough to be released. “It’s always a struggle. Baby fish are susceptible to a lot of things,” he says. Through May 5, fishers will be on the lookout for golden rainbow trout (seen below) — a coveted prize that earns the catcher a golden pin. Proceeds from fishing license sales fund hatchery and freshwater fisheries conservation programs, ensuring the state’s ponds will be full for years to come. “Hunting and fishing is what really makes the monitoring, the science, the land conservation possible,” Lynch says.

Photograph by James Jones