On August 5th, 1952, the director of the Alaska Department of Fisheries, CL Anderson and Alex McRae announced that the department had begun planting Rainbow Trout in Upper Fire Lake.

They also announced that they would begin planting into Falk and Echo Lakes later in the week.

According to their announcement, 20,000 fry were released into Fire Lake while 8,000 were scheduled to be released into Falk Lake and an additional 5,000 fry were scheduled for Echo Lake.

Also in the announcement, they revealed their plans to release the species into lakes in the Eureka area.

Present day, people and even the state say that Rainbow Trout were native to the state, but realistically, they are not.

While many species are considered introduced or invasive, and whether the Rainbow is considered as either, sportsmen statewide enjoy the fish whether saltwater or fresh.

Rainbow Trout are freshwater fish, but on occasion will migrate to saltwater and in one to three years evolve into and become a steelhead, a favorite of anglers statewide.

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