A History of Rainbow Trout in Canandaigua Lake

By Bud (Lawrence) Keith

In the early 1930’s the members of the sportsmen’s clubs in Ontario County met together and formed a County organization to be known as the Ontario county Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs. Two representatives would be elected by each club in the County to meet together to promote Conservation work.

One of their first endeavors was the raising and stocking of rainbow trout in Canandaigua Lake.

The State Conservation Department agreed to furnish fingerling trout if the local Federation would raise them to a size suitable for stocking in the lake.

Representatives from the Naples Club suggested that an abandoned mill pond at the mouth of Grimes Glen in the Village of Naples might be suitable for a rearing pond. The technicians from the State of New York checked the quantity and temperature of the water from the glen and found it to be satisfactory. However, considerable work needed to be done to restore the pond to a suitable condition. The raceway from the stream needed much restoring, and heavy silt and mud had to be removed from the bottom of the pond. A new outlet control gate had to be built.

Weekend work schedules were sent to all the clubs in Ontario County, and many volunteers completed the task. Power excavating equipment was not available for such local projects. In addition to picks and shovels, a couple of dump trucks and slip scrapers were “borrowed” from the Town Highway Department. Form boards were donated from an abandoned building. A hand mixer was also borrowed, gravel came from a nearby pit, and the new outlet gate was completed. The only expense was for a few sacks of cement. Financing was no problem, as there simply was no money available.

The work was all completed on schedule, and fresh water was flowing in and out of the pond by the time the trout were delivered by the state.

The fish food problem was anticipated ahead of time in the spring with the large spawning run of smelt in Canandaigua Lake. With the approval of the State Commission and the cooperation of the Cottage owners on Cooks Point, large quantities of smelt were seined from the stream and packed in barrels. These were taken by truck to Geneva, New York, where they were ground up and frozen in bushel baskets. Weekly trips were made from Naples to Geneva to bring back pickup truck loads of this fish food which was stored in the cooler at the local meat market. A schedule of local volunteers was established to feed the fish on a daily basis.

All went well until the middle of the summer when a sudden storm came and flooded the pond, washing out the earthen dike by the control gate. The pond drained, and all the young trout washed downstream. However, all was not lost, as the outlet raceway discharged into the Naples Creek, and the trout, although a little premature, ended up in Canandaigua Lake.

The second year was more successful with the problems of the first year resolved. By the end of the season, the trout had reached a size of six to seven inches.

The only problem encountered was that some local lads found that the trout were of legal size. They found the fishing to be very successful in the pond. However, the relatively few trout taken was of little consequence to the overall program.

In the late fall, the pond was lowered, and the trout seined out and transported to Canandaigua Lake in ten-gallon milk cans. This was the first successful stocking of rainbow trout in the finger Lakes.

The results of this effort have been well documented by the excellent rainbow trout fishing in recent years.

— Above article originally appeared in ‘The Neapolitan Record’ Issue 20, April 2017, page 24

About this story… An introduction from John Cowley: “This article was given to me several years ago by our neighbor Bud (Lawrence) Keith. The Keiths were our first friends in Naples. We were welcomed in such a sincere way. Neighborly it was and it has remained that way for many years now. From two doors down Bud, Martha and Bill came over together on August 26, 1967 and ‘welcomed us to Thrall St.’ We had arrived in small town America and immediately found a sense of friendship. It wasn’t long before we were spending time together in the gullies around the village exploring and learning the local history of these inland waterways. I recently went to visit Martha Keith to ask about putting this article in the ‘Neapolitan Record’ in anticipation of Trout Derby. She thought it would be nice. This is where it started, folks.” (Special thank you also to Elisabeth Cowley for her assistance)