State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection seasonal employee Matt Roath and Dave Mancini, a maintainer at DEEP's Quinebaug Hatchery, were stocking about 1,500 brook, brown and rainbow trout in Latimer Brook in East Lyme and Shunnock Brook in Old Mystic on Thursday as part of DEEP's spring stocking efforts.

Gov. Ned Lamont had ordered the state's trout season to start March 24, more than a week earlier than scheduled, in an effort to reduce the crowds that usually accompany the opening day of the season, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

DEEP will stock about 620,000 trout in state rivers, streams, lakes and ponds this spring.