Stocked Trout

[Mark Hanes]

So tomorrow I am going to be helping the PFBC Stock trout on a few Delayed Harvest areas in PA.  For those that are not aware PA has a fairly aggressive stocking program and stocks trout from mostly one year old all the way up to huge breeder size trout.  

So what is everyones opinion on stocked trout?  I for one think they are great for adding recreation and keep the casual fishermen from fishing and keeping wild trout.  

PA's great white fleet will be out in full force the next month or two.

Here is a link to the online stocking list for anyone that is interested.

http://pfbc.state.pa.us/pfbc_webgis/TroutStockingDetails.aspx

[Todd Oishi]

While fishing in the UK, I have had a few of my fishing partners refer to them as "Bimbos". Hope this helps... 

[Mark Hanes]

yeah they are pretty dumb!  I really like the browns they tend to get a lot harder to catch the more they get pressured.

[Dejon Hamann]

I love "Bimbos".  They're great for testing rods and new techniques.

[Todd Oishi]

I love "Bimbos".  They're great for testing rods and new techniques.

Ummmm... you are talking about "fishing" rods and "fishing" techniques I pressume. Otherwise you had better have ample supply of the primary tying material that's required for Vladi's Worm pattern...

[Mark Hanes]

Todd,

That really depends on the tactic.

Ok this thread is offically lost!

[Todd Oishi]

Sorry, I couldn't resist! 

But... Getting back on track; I think that freshly stocked fish do tend to be much easier to catch, due in part to to the fact that they are hungry and haven't had enough time to identify which items are to be consumed and which are to avoided. As well, they generally lack the ability to recognize a poor presentation from a proper or natural drag-free drift...

[Mark Hanes]

Yeah it is pretty easy but hell it beats working.  It looks like it might hit 70 degrees here tomorrow.  I day of pounding stockers always beats a day at work.

I will see how many stupid flies that I have I can catch trout on.

[Dejon Hamann]

Seriously though. I think it's important to practice over both stocked and wild trout.  Stocky bashing is like doing multiple reps of situps.  It really helps you hone your hook set, fish landing skills, etc. etc.  It's more of a physical workout... which Is why it's important to keep your "analytical" skills honed over wild trout too.

I'd say at least half of the competitive venues in North America are held on Stocked Waters.  Maybe more.

[Jim Guida]

My feeling on the subject is that without stocking the streams, there would be no fish left to fish as they would have been taken out many many years ago by our elders. I hear it all the time about how dumb stockers are but, with time they can be just as selective as their natural born brothers. What makes fish or animals harder to catch or kill is pressure, the more that is brought down on them the more wary they become, i have proved this many times over. How many of you have gone into the mountains to a very lightly fished section of water and found them to be fairly easy, now if you go to the oatka creek here in wny by mid june those fish are insanly hard to fool why, because they have been worked over daily. Now to those who giude
I LOVE DUMB FISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chris Smorul]

I caught the same stocker three times over the course of several months last year.  How did I know it was the same fish?  It wasn't hard to tell.

Details

Got him on the same fly as well.  The nice thing about it though, I was able to see how a trout moves for a fly.  So yeah, I think stockers can be important.

[Nick Naclerio]

I think stockers are great, they provide more fishing opportunities for people and in some places provide the only trout.

However there are times when they are truely pains in the ass. Don't get me wrong I've had my days of catching endless stockers but there are times when they are more difficult to catch than wild fish. I remember one day last spring fishing with Chris I caught ZERO fish on a NY state stocked river. Feeling pretty down I went to my local wild brown trout river and proceded to catch three wild brown in an hour. I find with wild trout the presentation needs to dead on and you need to be stealthy but the fish are less picky when it comes to flies. With stockers your presention can be dead on, you can be stealthy and they just don't want the flies, but then they will take something stupid like a glo bug.

[Frank Muscente]

Nick,
Does that have something to do with what they were fed in the hatchery?

[Nick Naclerio]

Frank,

There are a lot of theories I've heard. My guess would be that it has to do with them being fed hatchery pellets and not having to eat when the opportunity is there. Wild fish either eat of die. From what I've been told that is why hatchery fish stocked at a large size usually don't last very long, they don't have the food supply they are used to.

[Frank Muscente]

Makes sense. I read in a book I think it was "Presentation" that folks were fishing a stocked stream and the action was slow. Someone picked up a hand full of small pebbles, threw them in the water and the action turned on. Maybe the fish thought the pebbles were the pellets.

[Domenick Swentosky]

I'm a big fan of PA's fingerling stocking program.  I fish a few creeks where they stock a ton of fingerlings each year and those creeks tend to have a high population of big fish with an appetite for big streamers about the size of a fingerling.   

Actually, on all three of these creeks that I frequent, I wish they would stop stocking the fingerlings for a while and see what the wild production could really do.  I hear they are clipping fins now.  Should tell a lot.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

[Mark Hanes]

Two thumbs up to the fingerling program it has been a huge success in PA on the right water ways.

[Loren Williams]

Where they are the only option I have no issues...but if they are simply fodder to make the fishing easier then it aggravates me.  I think the angler sometimes just needs to get better.

Off to another day guiding on the steelhead river....

[Tim Barrett]

     I think it is a great opportunity to get a kid excited about FLY fishing. A kid that catches allot of fish will be more apt to continue with the sport. In stead of hearing."Daddy, I'm bored". You will hear..."Daddy, can we go fishing again tomorrow"
     I like catching them so they become EDUCATED. That way hopefully they will stop taking the worms, salties, and salmon eggs that the Pail packers use to harvest these poor creatures. I love to catch carryovers in the small streams around my house.
     Like Dejon, It is a great chance to test out gear and get your reaction time in tune.
Practice, Practice, Practice...
Tim

[Don Strandberg]

One big bitch of mine here in P.A.
PLEASE STOP STOCKING TROUT IN WILD TROUT STREAMS.

God........that drives me nuts. I could list 50 streams within an hour of my house. That need stocking like I need a hole in the head.

Sorry for the rant. But I have been fighting this for so long with little to show for it..
Even Some of the T.U. chapters do it. YIKKKKKKKKES/

Loren.. WEll said....

[Mike Norton]

stockies are fun to get the rust out......

they should have been or are in the process now of stocking the local streams here for opening day so when the big rains come it helps to stock the PA streams...LOL

Tim you remember that one year we were nailing them and the DEC guy watched from the bridge and then proceeded to check the licenses of the other pailpackers but not us and how mad those guys were we were catching fish and they weren't...I remember that like yesterday oh yeah and the Horse....ROFL  ( nothing bad happened to the horse )

mike   

[Robbie Bell]

Hi There,

Stockies win Prizes!

Whoopee………..   

I think stock fish are just great.

However my own view is that they should be limited to enclosed ponds and reservoirs and areas where there is no natural head of fish.  They should also be Triploids

Now I am not……repeat not…… trying to tell you how to run your fishing or your country…….just looking to give a perspective from over here.

My personal view is that catching stocked fish is not fly fishing……..it just looks like fly fishing…….

And I love it!

Bank fishing a small local Stillwater for a Winter League or an early season fun match on Rutland is robbie distilled.

I fall asleep at night wondering what to put on the top dropper and wake up trying to remember how many I had on the point fly.

Having said that I do not believe Rivers should be stocked unless they really cannot support themselves.

My local River system is the Tweed. I believe this is the most prolific Atlantic Salmon River in the world but it is also a very good Trout and Grayling river.

Stocking on this river and all its tributaries is now banned.

I believe this banning on open systems is to become Europe wide in the next few years.

There is significant research over here that stocking rivers actually results in less fish being caught.

Counter intuitive but I do believe proven by eminent scientists and believe me we are just as cynical about our scientists as you probably are.

The result of our recent ban on stocking is that our local Angling Associations and our River Biologists are now using their money and time on habitat improvement.

This work is at present mainly on the feeder burns where we are removing obstacles and cutting back on overshading as well as other improvements. Nature sometime just needs a helping hand to do its own stocking.

This work will benefit the system for years to come and with over 80 % of our fish now released we should see the results fairly quickly.

By the way I would say our catch and release “movement” was probably inspired by yours over there. Thank You.

Going back to stockies they are at first very easy to catch and often the first fly they see is the last one……...it is the one that kills them.

I do believe however that the hardest fish to catch are what I call the in-between fish. These are the ones that have survived the initial onslaught but are not yet “resident”

I think it works along the lines of this……… these fish have only learned or eat one or perhaps just a few natural organisms.

So if they have just learned an apple green midge in size 16 then even the most superbly tied and presented size 12 black buzzer will not interest them.  In time as they become resident they become more catholic in there tastes but require the correct presentation just like a wild fish.

Just a whole load of theory but I think good fly fishing is about having your own head settled and this works for me 

Best Regards

robbie

 

[Mark Hanes]

Robbie,

Great information and thanks for sharing.  I agree on the Triploids and I wish that is something Pennsylvania would do especially on some of the steams that have native brook trout in them. 

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

Coming back from last years Canadian Nationals in BC, I realized how much fun Triploids are. In Quebec they stock a lot of lakes but none that i could find with Triploids. You guys must be thinking he lives in a place with some of the best Brook trout fishing in the world and is complaning, But you have to try Triploids, Todd your very lucky!!!!

[Tim Barrett]

Don,
    Good point on the PA streams. I've seen many native brook trout streams in NEPA get ruined from the "invasion"
of stockies. There is a correct place for stocked fish. If the DNR and DEC would make more streams C&R and put back the native strain of trout for that location, what a world we would live in.

Mike,
    Yep, I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was quite entertaining to see how upset the Pail Packers were
getting because we were catching all their trout. The ENCON officer was getting a kick out of it as well. But I don't remember, what happened to the horse?