The City of Midland restocked trout to fish in two parks

MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) -The City of Midland restocked trouts into two of their park ponds for residents to go fishing.

CJ Kelly and Beal park just had trouts put back into their ponds.

Recreation manager for the city of Midland, Joey Jolly, spoke about the importance of having a location for locals to fish.

“There’s not a lake within an hour of Midland but this you can drive right across town, right down the street, and go spend time with your kids just relax fish and have fun.” said Jolly.

Even though they do have fish, there are still rules on what residents can and can’t do.

To fish there, you still need a fishing license that you can get at Academy, Walmart or the Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Gary Lafreniere, who’s the co-owner of Epic Baits says the nearest lake to go fish are over an hour away, and said he’s been busy getting West Texans, their bait.

“There’s a lot of people that call me. I’ve gotten phone calls yesterday and this morning of where we’re located at. To go on by here to get some tackle, get ready to go to the lake and go fishing.” said Lafreniere.

Even though West Texas isn’t really known for fishing, Lafreniere says he always gets calls of people asking him where the nearest place to fish is.

“There’s a lot of fishermen out here that travel all the way out to like Champion, Amistad down in Del Rio, or Ivey.” said Lafreniere.

Every person that goes fishing is limited to only 5 trout, if not, you could by cited.

Both ponds are monitored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Jolly says there are only trout at the moment, but during the summer, they replace them with catfish.

Jolly said the city plans to have events at these parks for residents to come out, have a good time and fish.

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