We raised lake trout for the Lake Champlain Restoration Program from 1980 to 1995. Like the Atlantic salmon, lake trout were extirpated from Lake Champlain around the turn of the century for similar reasons that caused the decline of salmon, including commercial fishing around spawning grounds, followed by the invasive sea lamprey. Over the last decade, the lake trout fishery has improved because of watershed-wide efforts to restore the Lake Champlain ecosystem such as improved sewage treatment, reducing pollution inputs to the lake, controlling the invasive sea lamprey, and a State-managed stocking program.
Today, we raise and stock lake trout throughout Vermont (except Lake Champlain) and we also stock Lake Ontario in support of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to restore our Great Lakes fisheries. Our hatchery works in partnership with the state of Vermont to raise lake trout for stocking the many waterbodies of Vermont.
