The man in charge of West Virginia's trout fisheries has some advice for anglers who hope to take advantage of this year's fall stockings:

"Anybody who goes fishing should take a 5-gallon bucket of water with them," said Mike Shingleton. He was only half-kidding.

Streams in most of the Mountain State are running low - in some cases, as low as Shingleton has ever seen them.

"I thought streams last year were about as low as they could get, but they're just as low this year," he said. "The Eastern Panhandle got a little bit of rain within the last couple of weeks. Their flows aren't too bad, but the rest of the state is in pretty terrible shape."

Regardless, Division of Natural Resources hatchery trucks will start running Oct. 14, bringing scheduled fall stockings to 35 streams and lakes throughout the state.

"We're going to stock, despite the low conditions," Shingleton said. "Our hatchery personnel are very capable of getting these trout in. They know the streams and they know where the holes are deep enough to get [the pounds of trout allotted for each stream] in."

Ordinarily, when hatchery production exceeds expectations and surplus trout are available for fall stocking, it's a good thing. Not so this year.

"We've got a few more pounds this year than last year, but given the low water conditions that isn't necessarily a good thing," Shingleton explained. "After the first week of stockings, our hatchery personnel will let us know if we have too many trout to fit into the streams. If we do, we'll probably move some of the [next week's] poundage to impoundments."

"Anybody who goes fishing should take a 5-gallon bucket of water with them," said Mike Shingleton. He was only half-kidding.

Streams in most of the Mountain State are running low - in some cases, as low as Shingleton has ever seen them.

"I thought streams last year were about as low as they could get, but they're just as low this year," he said. "The Eastern Panhandle got a little bit of rain within the last couple of weeks. Their flows aren't too bad, but the rest of the state is in pretty terrible shape."

Regardless, Division of Natural Resources hatchery trucks will start running Oct. 14, bringing scheduled fall stockings to 35 streams and lakes throughout the state.

"We're going to stock, despite the low conditions," Shingleton said. "Our hatchery personnel are very capable of getting these trout in. They know the streams and they know where the holes are deep enough to get [the pounds of trout allotted for each stream] in."

Ordinarily, when hatchery production exceeds expectations and surplus trout are available for fall stocking, it's a good thing. Not so this year.

"We've got a few more pounds this year than last year, but given the low water conditions that isn't necessarily a good thing," Shingleton explained. "After the first week of stockings, our hatchery personnel will let us know if we have too many trout to fit into the streams. If we do, we'll probably move some of the [next week's] poundage to impoundments."

Fall stockings usually contain 10 percent trophy-sized "brood trout" by weight. A surplus of brood stock this year has raised the percentage to roughly 20 percent.

"We have to get them out of the hatcheries. If we keep them in there this fall and through the winter, it will have an adverse impact on the number and size of trout we will be able to stock next spring," Shingleton said.

In years past, fall stockings began the Monday after squirrel season began. A couple of years back, DNR officials switched the first stockings to the day after the Columbus Day holiday.

"Squirrel season opens on the Saturday of the first full week in October," Shingleton explained. "Variations in the calendar caused the beginning of the fall stocking season to jump all over the place. We decided to start it the day after Columbus Day. It made it more uniform."

With nine days left until stockings are scheduled to begin, Shingleton remains hopeful that streams will get some much-needed rain.

"We haven't had any significant rain in almost two months," he said. "One positive sign is that trees are slowing down on their water uptake. That's going to help a little bit. Stream gauges around the state are starting to show that flows are stabilizing. Now we need some rain.

"Several times in the past few years, our stocking routines have been saved by last-minute rains. We're hoping for something like that this year. We need water. Tell your readers to start doing rain dances. Tell them I won't make the least bit of fun of them if they do."

Reach John McCoy at 348-1231 or johnmc...@wvgazette.com.