Fishing club president Tom Williams, who has been involved in the local restocking program for decades, said the program aims to promote recreational fishing and encourages reporting of the tagged fish numbers to monitor activity.

“Annual restocking programs for our local waterways is not only important to maintain the aquatic ecosystem, it is an important way to boost visitation numbers to the area,” Mr Willliams said.

Around 500 rainbow trout fingerlings were farmed for the program, travelling from Ebor to be relocated into Carcoar Dam.

They are numbered with special tags to encourage those people to record the number and report to the DPI.

Meanwhile, applications are now open for Orange’s and the Central West’s fishing clubs to seek funding for their projects.

DPI Group Director, Recreational and Aboriginal Fisheries, Peter Turnell, said grants are available for both large projects – those involving more than $10,000 of funding – and smaller ones.

“This funding makes a meaningful difference to recreational fishers, with flow-on benefits for entire communities who benefit from the increased tourism and business opportunities that recreational fishing can generate in their region,” Mr Turnell said.

“Some of the popular projects currently funded include fishing platforms and fish habitat rehabilitation.”