Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@wildblue.net. It is the middle of the general deer season, but it is also the beginning of the rainbow trout season. Although not an official season, it is the time of year when Texas Parks and Wildlife Department stocks trout in many lakes and streams.

TPWD has been stocking rainbow trout each winter for more than 30 years, and from December through mid-March, the department will stock more than 270,000 hatchery-reared rainbow trout at 120 sites across the state. Many of these fish stockings will be conducted at small community lakes, state park lakes and popular river trailraces that offer easy angling success.

Most sites will get a dose of more than 1,000 trout. Catching these hungry fish can be easy, which makes the experience ideal for children and novice anglers.

Trout typically will take a variety of baits, including whole kernel canned corn, earthworms, artificial flies or small spinner baits.

Fishing gear can be as basic as an inexpensive spin cast rod and reel combo, a small plastic bobber or a fishing weight, and a small hook. It is also a good idea to carry along a pair of needle nose pliers to help remove hooks and a small ice chest. It is important to keep freshly caught trout on ice to keep them fresh.

The complete 2009-10 rainbow trout stocking schedule can be found on the TPWD Web site at www.tpwd.state.tx.us. Anglers can find stocking locations, stocking dates and driving directions to many sites.

Some sites within reasonable driving distance from Lampasas are Blanco State Park -- with stockings on Dec. 11, Dec. 28 and Jan. 15 -- and the Copperas Cove City Park Lake, to be stocked on Feb. 14. Others include Llano River at Grenwelge Park in Llano on Dec. 3 and Nolan Creek in Belton on Dec. 15 and Feb. 12.

Two years ago, my wife Nelda and I drove over to South Llano River State Park after trout were stocked in the river. We did not catch very many, but we enjoyed the outing. Why did we drive for several hours to catch a few trout? The Llano River is a clear, cool, spring-fed river, and in some ways it resembles trout streams in the mountains. Also, it is much closer than driving to New Mexico and Colorado to fish for trout.

The South Llano River will receive trout on Dec. 22 and Feb 3.

I may have told these stories before, but I haven’t heard them in awhile so I will tell them again. My family, when I was a youngster, camped for several days every year in a Forest Service campground near the upper Rio Grande River in Colorado. We fished for trout and usually caught enough for a family fish fry every day.

There is not much better eating than fresh trout caught in a clear mountain steam and fried in a Dutch oven skillet over a campfire.

While in high school, I worked several summers on my grandfather’s ranch in northern New Mexico. I spent the summer driving a large tractor, plowing sagebrush and planting improved grasses.

On some of my days off, I would drive a short distance to Gallina Creek and fish for trout in the small stream. The creek was in the Santa Fe National Forest, and I would walk several miles up the creek fishing in each pool of water. I did not catch a lot of fish, but it was enjoyable to spend a day in the mountains.

Fishing for rainbow trout in Texas may not be the same as fishing for them in a cool mountain stream, but to me it is still a good opportunity to spend time in the outdoors.