SHOSHONE, Idaho — Paxton Johnson has one thing on his mind this summer.
"Trout— just to catch trout," the Buhl youngster said. Turns out, Paxton is not alone.
Idaho is a state full of anglers — young and old — looking to land the big one. Thanks to Idaho Fish and Game, Idahoans like Paxton have their pick of creeks, rivers, lakes, and ponds in which to throw a line, because more likely than not, they are stocked with trout.
WATCH: Idaho Fish and Game stocks rivers and lakes with rainbow trout raised at a hatchery near Hagerman.
Daniel Anta, assistant manager at the state-run Hagerman Fish Hatchery, said millions of trout are raised there every year to be released into Idaho's waterways.
"We have gravity water, we have 59 degrees. Buhl, Idaho— it's the trout capital of the world because of all these springs that come from the Lost River drainage. We just have ideal conditions in the Hagerman Valley to raise rainbow trout," explained Anta.
On a recent stocking run, 760 rainbow trout — weighing in at 2.6 to the pound, or close to 10 inches each — were loaded up and transported out of the Hagerman Valley, through the high desert and farmland of Lincoln County, with the Little Wood River as their final destination.
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After dropping nets full of trout in Richfield, the crew moved on to Shoshone, where the rest were released.
How far those rainbow trout travel from there is entirely up to them.
"They can go as far as the Snake River— the Little Wood becomes the Malad— and then the Malad becomes the Snake River, and there are no dams or anything between— little farming dams, but nothing they can't get through," Anta said.
For Paxton and other Idaho anglers, Fish and Game's efforts do not go unappreciated.
"I like it, it's pretty cool that they stock it so people can catch fish," Paxton said.
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