380,000 trout plunge from airplanes into remote Colorado lakes, video shows

How do you stock 330 remote mountain lakes with 380,000 trout?

In years past, rangers had to carry fish in milk cans via horseback to remote lakes.

Now they airdrop the fish from the sky, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife video shows.

“It’s efficient,” says fish culturist Doug Sebring in the video. “We can get a large quantity of fish into high mountain lakes that are basically only accessible by foot or horseback.”

Wildlife pilot Larry Gepfert says he tries to drop the fish from heights of 100 feet to 150 feet at speeds of about 70 mph.

“They are so small and they don’t have a lot of mass to them, so their acceleration rate is pretty low,” Gepfert says in the video. “Their heads are the heaviest parts, so they tend to go head first and drop straight into the water.”

It takes about two years for the trout to reach sizes of 10 inches or more, allowing them to be legally caught, KDVR reported.

The video shows Gepfert dropping about 70,000 fish into several remote lakes in northern Colorado.

“It’s still fun,” Gepfert says in the video. “It’s still one of my favorite parts of the job.”

Utah and several other Western states also stock remote lakes with fish by air, Science Alert reported. The fish are small enough that 95% survive the plunge, Utah officials say.