... it appears that Tim B. answered most of the questions, but I will fill in some gaps and clarify a bit. We have stocked pike in Winchester since 2001 but the number of fingerlings that have been stocked from year to year has been highly variable (410 – 2009; 681 – 2008; 0 – 2007; 220 – 2006; 2,040 – 2005; 2,028 – 2004; 678 – 2003; 1,400 – 2002 and 1,133 – 2001). The reason for the wide range in stocking number is due to high variability in our managed spawning marshes. Fingerling production is typically dictated by environmental conditions. Currently we are trying to address this problem with the hopes of producing a more consistent product statewide (especially seeing as how most of our pike program is driven by fingerling stocking).

So far the pike in Winchester seem to be doing very well. In fact, a little better than I had anticipated. We still have a fair amount of assessment to do on this lake to determine overall population size and catch rates of anglers, but it does appear that the pike are growing as well as our other management lakes. Personally (and I say this after handling a few thousand pike over the years), I feel that the adult pike in Winchester are some of the prettiest pike we have in CT. Very clean appearance, nice markings and very robust body condition.

Reports from anglers have also indicated that the population is doing well. I promised not to reveal secrets, but I will say that some folks have figured out this “finiky” fishery and over the last couple of years caught a number of really nice fish, with a few over the 40” mark.

I doubt that Winchester, given its depth and surface acreage, will ever hold a large population of trophy fish, but I do think that this lake has the potential to continually produce a few monsters on an annual basis. One additional side benefit is that there seems to be some natural reproduction in the lake. I say this because we have sampled smaller sized pike (and anglers have caught some smaller 12”-14” fish) when there should not have been fish of that size in the lake. We will also be assessing the level of natural reproduction in the near future.

Hopefully this answers some of the questions, but if you have any other questions feel free to shoot me an email.