MIDDLESEX TWP — It was a release-and-catch situation Saturday at Glade Mill Lake.

At 10 a.m. fifth-grade teachers Rob Takacs and Dave McCool and their classes from Butler Middle School released young catfish into the lake from the boat launch.

At noon, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission released trout into the lake. And also beginning at noon 80 families began a day of fishing.

Dave Andrews, the fishery science coordinator for the Butler school district, said the fifth-grade teachers and their classes raised 125 catfish in a large tank on the deck of the disused pool at the middle school.

Andrews added rainbow trout also are being raised at both the middle school and the high school and will be released later in two weeks in Connoquenessing Creek and Sullivan Run.

The middle and high schools have been raising fish for nearly five years. “Basically it’s science related,” said Andrews. “STEAM teachers use it a lot. There’s a lot of integration throughout the curriculum.”

Takacs said he and McCool used a curriculum developed and provided by the fish commission that they integrated into the school program.

Nearly 130 fifth-graders are directly involved in the fish raising and monitoring, but all fifth-graders in the district have experience with the fish,

Takacs said class members have to monitor the water quality and the health of the fish.

“The students are involved in raising the fish and maintaining the water temperature.It’s an extracurricular program,” said Takacs.

He said the fifth-graders learn biology through observing the life cycle of the fish and learn to correct the water temperatures and water quality.

“They are conscientious and responsible. They take ownership. They are sad to see them go,” he added.

“For the fishing part, we received a grant from the fish and boat commission. We taught ‘Fishing is Fun’ classes at three elementary schools: Broad Street Emily Brittain and Summit,” said Andrews.

“We had the students stay after school for four sessions teaching kids how to fish. We had over 160 sign up and attend between the three buildings,” said Andrews.

The family fishing day was a culminating events for the students. Andrews said 80 families have signed up to be at Glade Mill Lake to go fishing.

“We taught them. Now they get to go out and fish,” he said.

The restocking is necessary, said Andrews, to restore the fish population to a lake that had been drained in 2011 for safety reasons because of problems with the dam. The lake was refilled in stages beginning in 2017.

Trout are restocked annually for fishing, but the commission is also actively building up warm-water species in hopes of solidifying a permanent ecosystem. That includes bluegills, bass, crappie and catfish.

“This is a pretty popular lake since it’s been refilled. There’s always people here,” said Andrews.

It was a painstaking process introducing the catfish to the lake. Tim Wilson, the regional biologist for the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, would remove a net full of catfish from the big tank at a time, introducing them to a small tub with a sedative and notching each fish’s fin.

He dumped them into a second bin full of fresh water, which woke them back up, and then youngsters attending the event got to set them free in the lake.

“There’s a chance when these fish become adults, when these fish spawn, we can tell if they came from the fishery or in the wild,” said Wilson explaining the notches.

Unnotched fish caught at the lake would indicate a naturally reproducing population, Wilson said, and could mean the commission could quit stocking events like the one Saturday.

To add in that effort, David Fowler, a board member of the Glade Run Lake Conservancy, said the conservancy has worked with Boy Scouts and Mars High School students to build wooden spawning boxes, 38 in all, that have been placed under rocks throughout the lake to encourage the growth of the catfish population as the fish mature.

Fowler said the conservancy’s Second Annual Youth Fishing Derby will take place from dawn to dusk April 30.

There will be two categories: 7 & under and 8-12 years old. Prizes will be available in both age categories for grand slam (largest trout, bass and sunfish combo), overall largest sunfish and largest stringer of five sunfish.

Fish caught will be photographed, measured, and released back into the lake.

Fowler said more information on the tournament is availabe on at www.gladerunlakeconservancy.org

All funds raised will help the GRLC continue conservation efforts at the lake and its adjacent lands.

“We’ve double the amount of preserved acreage in the watershed this year,” said Fowler.

The conservancy won the 2021 Lake Management Award for an Outstanding Organization by the Pennsylvania Lake Management Society, in recognition of the organization's valuable contributions to Pennsylvania lake and watershed management.

“It’s quite an award, considering it’s statewide,” said Fowler.