Today, Monday, October 10th, the state is celebrating the official “reopening” of Connetquot River State Park Preserve’s hatchery and trout fishery. It has been a long road since this once world class fishery was drained of its riches in the form of 80,000 rainbow, brown and brook trout. Discovery of the IPN virus (infectious pancreatic necrosis) in the Connetquot’s trout population in 2006 resulted in the closing of the hatchery and the release of the park’s trout into the brackish lower reaches of the river. Given that IPN is present in many rivers across the country where state agencies choose not to react to what is virtually a harmless disease, many anglers and even local politicians roundly criticized the DEC’s decision to eradicate the river’s trout population. In fact, some even suggested that the move warranted a criminal investigation. Since then, the “Conny” has been but a shell of itself. Revenue from what were once long lines of anglers vying for prime beats disappeared, along with much of the wildlife that used the river as its lifeline.
While many of us abandoned the “Conny” in disgust, fortunately there was a group of dedicated individuals and organizations that refused to let the river die. As Angelo Peluso noted in a 2015 article on the Connetquot, it was “members of the Idle Hour Fly Fishers, especially Richard "Doc" Steinberger, Jerry Sabatino and Bruce Morabito; Friends of the Connetquot members lead by Richard Remmer; Ginny Fields, former Suffolk County legislator and NYS Assemblywoman; Wayne Horsley, Regional Director L.I. State Parks, and his staff; and Rose Harvey, Commissioner New York State Parks who became staunch advocates for the river and its trout, constantly overcoming numerous obstacles to bring in focus the need to restore trout to the Connetquot and to restore its once heralded reputation as a preeminent Northeast fly fishing river.”
Their efforts have finally bore fruit after ten long years. With a new well and degassing tower that will oxygenate the groundwater and remove high levels of CO2 in place, the well water used to support trout egg incubation and early fry rearing should remain disease free. Also aiding in the river’s revival was the hiring of a new hatchery manager, Norman Soule, the former manager at the Cold Spring Harbor Hatchery & Aquarium.
The first wave of hatchery raised trout were just recently released into the hatchery’s raceways. They tested negative for IPN before their release, and DEC is requiring they be tested again before being released into the river, but there is no doubt that the “Conny” is on its way back. If all goes according to plan the hatchery should be producing 30 to 45 thousand trout per year by the second or third year of operation.
The fishing has already seen dramatic improvement as a result of supplemental stockings to the DEC’s token effort by State Parks and private entities. Many anglers who fished the river over the past several months spoke of good numbers of trout with a number of quality fish among them. The hope is that soon, the hatchery will be able to sustain the river’s trout population at a level that will once again elevate it to one of the premier trout waters in the Northeast.
