For more than 56,000 Maryland anglers, there's nothing so sweet or more of a harbinger of spring than the growl of the big trucks filled with trout.
In good weather and bad, state fisheries tank trucks load up with thousands of trout raised at hatcheries and drop them off in waterways from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore: iridescent speckled rainbows; dusky, glistening brown trout; and a sunflower-yellow variety that makes the surrounding water glitter.
"I left with 2,200 [fish] and I'll go back empty," said Ken Booth, a Department of Natural Resources biologist who started Thursday at the Albert Powell Hatchery in Hagerstown.
The spring stocking program places 325,000 trout in public streams and ponds. Growing and stocking trout is paid for through fishing license fees, the $5 trout stamp purchased by anglers, and federal fishing and boating tax revenue.
The state buys trout eggs and ships them to the spring-fed Albert Powell Hatchery. Tiny fish start in trays and graduate to large indoor tanks. From there, the fingerlings are transferred outdoors to cement troughs, called raceways, to grow to legal size.
Without exception, clusters of anglers wait for the trucks at water's edge so they can scratch the itch of cabin fever. Those numbers blossom at Saturday's 5:30 a.m. opening of catch-and-keep trout season, with popular spots like the Patapsco and Gunpowder rivers lined with generations of anglers.
About 10 a.m., Booth backed his truck up to Gwynn Oak Pond - one of the places where the season never ends - as a group of fishermen assembled.
"Tony had it calculated to a T," said Jim Stanley, a 40-year angler, pointing at friend Tony Scroggins. "He knows when they're dumping. Now, he's got me smelling for the truck."
Booth and other DNR fisheries staff aimed a large hose at the water, and within two minutes, 750 trout had a new home. Before the truck could pull away, a half-dozen fishermen were reeling in fish and swapping stories.
As he watched, Mark Staley, DNR's central region fisheries manager, smiled and said, "It's nice to have a job where people are happy to see you."