As most are you are aware, the extended cold temperatures that we experienced in the first week of January this past year resulted in a fish kill that none us know the extent of at this point. There were numerous reports of dead trout around lowcountry rivers and many anglers started offering to voluntarily release their trout this year. SCDNR came out with a public service announcement encouraging the release of trout as well. Many of us wanted to do more and start talking about different ways we could help. Several people on our site mentioned being happy to give money if they knew their money was being spent to help the trout population. I asked about the possibility of raising public funds that would be dedicated to a re-stocking effort, but it seemed there were a lot of hoops that would need to be cleared in order to make this happen. While I was asking questions of people I know, some other guys had already put in a huge effort to clear those hoops and were already in action making this very thing happen.
This effort was spearheaded by Joel Levine, of Redfin Charters. He was quickly joined by local companies, Z-Man and Eye Strike Fishing, who not only pledged to help get the word out, but also pledged substantial donations to help get this initiative started. Out of these efforts a non-profit entity called, the Community and Professional Response Initiative (CPR) was formed. The first project of CPR will be to raise $25,000 to purchase a spawning tank for the DNR Facility at Fort Johnson. This tank will be used to produce up to 600,000 eggs per year for re-stocking efforts. This first initiative is project ReSpeck. The following link is on our site and give links to the donations page as well as some more information. http://old.charlestonfishing.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=175609
This is a great opportunity for anglers to help shape the future of our fishery for generations to come and you will be able to say you were a part of this unique initiative where anglers took it upon themselves to make a diff