Logan Hinebaugh from Mountaineer Challenge Academy, tosses a bucket of trout in the Cheat River near Rowlesburg. 15 thousand pounds of fish went in at 20 stops along the Cheat.
By: Jennifer Graham | Posted: April 28, 2018 at 7:00 a.m. | Source: The Dominion Post
KINGWOOD — Trout for Cheat is celebrating it’s 20th year, according to Art George, president of the program.
Each year the group stocks the narrow section of the Cheat River from Riverview Lounge on Route 50 to Rowlesburg with trout.
“Mr. George started the program,” committee member Bo Burnside said. “He did it to give people a unique place to fish.”
He said the Challenge Academy cadets carry the fish to the river and deputies from the Preston County Sheriff’s Department handle traffic control. All of the people who help stock the river are volunteers.
George said members of Trout for Cheat stock the river eight times each year. He said 1,800 pounds of trout, ranging in weight from two to 12 pounds are released at each stocking. Indian Lakes Fisheries out of Elkview transports the fish, George said
“We’ll have one more spring stocking in May,” George said.
He said it cost $5,500 each time the river is stocked.
“We have people coming to fish from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and the Carolinas,” he said.
Burnside agreed.
“People make a special trip just to fish in the cheat,” he said. “Some have come from as far away as New York.”
The distance from New York to Rowlesburg is about 383 miles.
Other members of Trout for Cheat who help with stocking the river are Bob Martin, Jim White, Jon Hunter and Buzz Halterman.
