Delaware’s recent arctic weather hasn’t just kept kids out of the classroom – it’s also keeping First State anglers off the ponds.
DNREC officials are moving back opening day on downstate trout season for Tidbury and Newton Ponds by a week to March 14.
Mike Stangl, a program manager for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, says the ice over the ponds don’t make it easy to fish, let alone stock the waterways.
“It’s a safety issue more than anything. We don’t want to put people out there, or our guys out there trying to stock fish in a hole, so we’re just going to let things thaw naturally and put them in there and go from there," Stangl said.
Stangl says they’ve never had to postpone downstate trout season since they started stocking those ponds about twenty years ago.
“Last year was one where it got down into the 20s or the teens that Friday before opening day. There was some surface ice on there, some skim ice, but by noon or one o’clock, both ponds were open and ready to go,” said Stangl.
The agency plans to bring in more than 300 pounds of rainbow trout averaging between 11 and 13 inches for both ponds, with some bigger ones included.
You need a Delaware fishing license and a trout stamp to fish the ponds until April 8. After that date, you’ll only need a license.