Smart Stocking

[MattM37]

"Float stocking" is a lot better than just dumping fish at the main access spots. Not only disperses the fish better, but takes the "truck chasers" right out of the equation.

Ninemile Creek group marks 25th year of stocking trout stream by canoe - newyorkupstate.com

[Danbo]

"Float stocking" is a lot better than just dumping fish at the main access spots. Not only disperses the fish better, but takes the "truck chasers" right out of the equation.

Ninemile Creek group marks 25th year of stocking trout stream by canoe - newyorkupstate.com

Matt have you ever fished Nine mile?
I have fished there a lot but not this year.

They say 25 % survive , I think that's low.
The Creek has turned into a wild Trout mecca and the section they mention is good but the better fishing is from Marceles falls to Munro park. There are huge browns and a good population of Rainbow in that section.

It has been to crowded for me the last two years.

[MattM37]

Matt have you ever fished Nine mile?
I have fished there a lot but not this year.

They say 25 % survive , I think that's low.
The Creek has turned into a wild Trout mecca and the section they mention is good but the better fishing is from Marceles falls to Munro park. There are huge browns and a good population of Rainbow in that section.

It has been to crowded for me the last two years.

No. I've actually never fished quite a few of our more popular streams -- or with some, at least not since I was a kid and my brothers or uncles took me there.

I agree, the crowds are a deal-breaker. I like chatting with someone at the parking area, but once I'm fishing, not so much.

[DakotaMan]

Most of these trout are hatched and raised for one purpose only: to provide an opportunity for the average American to catch a trout. The hatcheries are generally not intending to grow the fish population in a stream. In many cases, a given stream does not have the structure and food supply to sustain the life of all the new trout. If they are not caught by fishermen, most of the trout would likely die of starvation within a few weeks in many habitats.

We normally see that some fishermen are aficionados with hundreds of dollars worth of gear and notions of secluded Rocky Mountain streams in their eyes. The vast majority of "sport" fishermen however have little fishing knowledge, a rickety pole, a rusty hook and a can of corn they recently purchased from their local grocery store for the conquest.

In spite of the rudimentary equipment, most "sport" fishermen and their families have the time of their life collecting enough trout for a nice family meal. The hatchery serves them all and doesn't differentiate regarding who is allowed to have fun. As long as sport fishermen continue to have fun and play nicely together, the hatcheries will continue to hatch trout to enable them. If no one shows up, the hatcheries will shut down and sport fishing may cease to exist.

I appreciate conservationist desires to grow trout populations but in most cases, they don't realize that the primary reason some streams and water ways are devoid of large trout populations is they they don't have the habitat to sustain a larger population (or perhaps any population at all). Typically, state hatcheries understand the natural order of things and realize that their mission is to give their constituents (not just a few aficionados) a chance to have a trout dinner. They fully realize that if they dispersed the fingerlings, they would all be dead within a few weeks and few of the state's fishermen would ever see them.

[MattM37]

Most of these trout are hatched and raised for one purpose only: to provide an opportunity for the average American to catch a trout. The hatcheries are generally not intending to grow the fish population in a stream. In many cases, a given stream does not have the structure and food supply to sustain the life of all the new trout. If they are not caught by fishermen, most of the trout would likely die of starvation within a few weeks in many habitats.

We normally see that some fishermen are aficionados with hundreds of dollars worth of gear and notions of secluded Rocky Mountain streams in their eyes. The vast majority of "sport" fishermen however have little fishing knowledge, a rickety pole, a rusty hook and a can of corn they recently purchased from their local grocery store for the conquest.

In spite of the rudimentary equipment, most "sport" fishermen and their families have the time of their life collecting enough trout for a nice family meal. The hatchery serves them all and doesn't differentiate regarding who is allowed to have fun. As long as sport fishermen continue to have fun and play nicely together, the hatcheries will continue to hatch trout to enable them. If no one shows up, the hatcheries will shut down and sport fishing may cease to exist.

I appreciate conservationist desires to grow trout populations but in most cases, they don't realize that the primary reason some streams and water ways are devoid of large trout populations is they they don't have the habitat to sustain a larger population (or perhaps any population at all). Typically, state hatcheries understand the natural order of things and realize that their mission is to give their constituents (not just a few aficionados) a chance to have a trout dinner. They fully realize that if they dispersed the fingerlings, they would all be dead within a few weeks and few of the state's fishermen would ever see them.

I see all your points, but there might be some differences in this case. I don't recall how much was or wasn't described in the article, but most if not all of these fish are well beyond fingerlings -- a good many of the stockies are 12-15 inch fish. Still tenderfeet in the wild stream, but somewhat better equipped. I surely see what you mean about fingerlings not surviving, though, as my own favorite stream, stocked with browns and holding wild browns, and brookies in the headwaters, has a very good population of walleye and smallmouths, too. Jimbo and I were just talking in another thread about that very thing. Years past, there was a certain point upstream where you never found anything but trout, but the walleyes have been showing up there.

That aside, though, our streams around here really are classic trout habitat. I think I'm correctly picturing the kinds of streams you're thinking of when you mention structure and food supply, and for the most part, we're lucky to have the different, more trouty (troutier?) kind.

I think our local view towards stockies and hatcheries is a good 50-60 percent how you describe, but I think there's a good many who think of the overall, ongoing trout population, too. Holdovers and stockies that survive and go wild, as well as all the freshly stocked fish, provide plenty of fun and/or food, too.

I tend to think of hatchery fish as "supplemental," I suppose, rather than straight put-and-take. I think our Conservation Dept. does to some extent, too -- just this year, in fact, they made big revisions to many regulations including differentiating different creel limits on different stretches of streams. It's pretty involved in some areas and with some streams. They're definitely looking to protect the wild populations but I think it's meant to turn more stockies into holdovers and enhance the fishery that way, too.

[DakotaMan]

[QUOTE=MattM37;n797118 ... I tend to think of hatchery fish as "supplemental," I suppose, rather than straight put-and-take. [/QUOTE]
Good comments Matt. I know there are many exceptions to any rule around the U.S.

I used to think pretty much as your comment above Matt. I live in Georgia where we have numerous genuine trout streams in the mountainous northern part of the state. All these streams seemed to have enough trout to where a fisherman had a chance to catch a rainbow, brown or even a brookie once in a while.

Then I spent a half day in a hatchery near me. Their position was that each stream had only the basic resources for a certain number of trout and that the fish population could not be raised beyond the level that the stream or lake would support. Most of our streams run at that level regardless of what the state natural resources crew does or what sport fishermen do. We have big lakes, like Lanier too, where there used to be trout until striped bass were introduced as sport fish. The stiped bass have the capacity to eat all the trout that are planted or hatched natively, year after year, so the hatchery doesn't waste money in those lakes. Instead, they foster the growth of herring that provide a more robust food supply but may not be quite as tasty to the stripers.

They stock the state's trout streams with 12" to 15" trout so that sport fishermen can catch and eat them before they die because no stream has unlimited capacity. They advised that I catch and eat all I can after a stocking so the fish they worked so hard to raise don't just rot in streams that are just too cold for other fish that would eat them. In general, they expect about 90% of the fish they stock to be dead within a few weeks of the stocking.

That was surprising to me but it makes sense. In most remote and COLD trout streams, sport fishing or stocking have little impact on the number of trout but where it can, I'm sure supplemental stocking sure helps.