Does anyone keep any trout that that you catch?

[hockeyref]

Just curious if any of you take any fish home for the frying pan? I am in SW Pa so good fly water is limited unless I wanna drive a bit. Because of this, I split time between spinners and fly rods. I personally usually C&R fish with fly tackle but might keep a big stockie for dinner. If I am looking to specifically keep a couple fish for dinner I tend to go after stockies with spinnners.

 

[tomgamber]

If its gonna die anyway I might if I'm at camp but I 99% c&r and rarely am prepared to haul dead fish any distance.

 

[wildtrout2]

I've kept exactly 3 trout in the last 20+ years, two to eat and one (18") got mounted. For years, my dad asked why I never keep any of the trout I catch? When I'd show him pics of them, he'd say "now I see why you don't keep them".

When my pop was in his last couple years of life, I though it would be nice to let him taste what a wild trout actually tasted like, so I brought home a couple real good size wild browns, both of which had pink meat. He said they were delicious, but keep releasing them in the future. Haven't kept one since.

 

[Millsertime]

Go fish somewhere with wild browns and stocked browns. Keep one of each. Take home and cook to your preference and then compare. I did this last year. Wild so much more flavor.

 

[redrockgrizzly]

some of these rainbows that are stocked in marginal streams are going to get relocated to my smoker.

 

[Weikertgal]

Trout was often on the menu when I was growing up. My best friend's dad seemed to fish constantly and would make it in foil, on the grill. Good memories.

I haven't had wild trout in at least 30 years. Even if I wasn't in a catch and release area, I don't have the desire to clean it.

I come from a hunting/fishing/farming family and wild game was always on the table. We ate what we killed. My circle of friends now have very different thoughts on that, especially when it comes to trout. Prior to our area going C&R, a neighbor was horrified when a teen son of friends stopped by to show us a monster trout he caught and was excited to make for family dinner.

 

[hemlock]

Why no option of keeping wild fish? I'll eat a few a year.

 

[3wt7X]

I was pretty strict about catch and release until my daughters became old enough to fish with me. They love the taste of pan fried trout in olive oil with either Italian bread crumbs or panko. We eat a lot of fish in general and my youngest loves crappie and walleye. Needless to say, I spend a fair amount of time with them in the local put and take areas with a stringer. I also have taken them camping on the North Branch and kept a few wild/holdover bows from the catch and keep area up there. My only rule is that we only keep enough for a single meal (nothing goes in the freezer).

 

[sixfootfenwick]

My preferences aren't represented by the poll so I didn't vote.

I keep stocked trout in wild trout streams, doesn't have to be a monster.
The rest of the time I C&R.

 

[dudemanspecial]

My wife's grandmother used to like a good fish fry so I would always go out sometime after opening day and bring home some stockers. She's dead now and nobody else gets too excited about it so I stopped. Might keep some this year to see if my son had grown a taste for them yet, up to him. My oldest got mad at me when I took him around age 10 and killed the first fish he got, that was the end of that.

 

[hockeyref]

Why no option of keeping wild fish? I'll eat a few a year.

Added as an option

 

[dudemanspecial]

Also I must add that I thought the old stocker brookies were a better tasting fish than stocker rainbows are. Maybe thats just me.

 

[hockeyref]

I was pretty strict about catch and release until my daughters became old enough to fish with me. They love the taste of pan fried trout in olive oil with either Italian bread crumbs or panko. We eat a lot of fish in general and my youngest loves crappie and walleye. Needless to say, I spend a fair amount of time with them in the local put and take areas with a stringer. I also have taken them camping on the North Branch and kept a few wild/holdover bows from the catch and keep area up there. My only rule is that we only keep enough for a single meal (nothing goes in the freezer).

I kinda agree with this…. If I ate more fish I might consider it, but my wife is not real big on fish. Because of this, it’s always been a bring home a cook it up for my (and sometimes my daughters) dinner.

 

[caddisflyer]

I keep a few stocked fish from the put and take areas. Usually caught on spinning rod. Delayed harvest areas I let them go. I really dont think eating wild fish is a good idea overall because you are depleting them and the bigger, eating sized ones are somewhat rare. I have seen guys come into unregulated wild areas and keep fish and really put a hurting on the bigger fish and it takes a long time for them to recover. Just my view. If I want to get a bunch to eat I go to Limestone springs Trout Hatchery and catch a bunch with my grandkids. I vacuum seal them and freeze them and they keep very well. For some reason the ones from there are especially tasty. The meat is pink so they are feeding them something different.

 

[wildtrout2]

I keep stocked trout in wild trout streams, doesn't have to be a monster.
The rest of the time I C&R.

I once caught a 17" rainbow on an unstocked (by the state) Class A wild brown trout stream that apparently had been stocked by the only property owner who lived in the immediate are. I put that fish on a cord stringer that I tied to a tree root in the water to keep it alive while I fished most of the day. I took that bad boy home for dinner, and it was one of THE best fish I've ever tasted. Go figure.

 

[caddisflyer]

Smoke trout not crack!

 

[Tigereye]

I keep a few early season stocked trout for the smoker and all palominos. (I have previously shared my logic for keeping the yellow bass turds)
By mid May it is typically all C&R.

I don't spin fish.

 

[Bamboozle]

Why no option for catch & release all tackle...?

That being said, I fly fish & occasionally spin fish for trout, however my C&R preference for trout began as a spin fisherman probably 2 years before I started fly fishing at the age of 18. When I did harvest, almost always it was very local and I would leave the creek and head to my grandmother's who unlike her daughter (my mom), was willing to "stink up the house" cooking fish. 😉

The only reason I don't keep fish any longer besides the fact that my grandmother is long gone is, I remember the days of dragging them around all day either on a stringer or in a Ziploc bag and today, I just can't be bothered.

If I want to eat fish, I go to Wegman's or a restaurant...

BTW - Once I went C&R, my grandmother (who was from the "old country") thought I was nuts to "throw the fish away." 🙂

Hassles aside, I do have some really local Stocked Trout Waters and a privately stocked non Class A stream at my disposal where I could easily catch a few stockers, dispatch them, plop them in a cooler 10 feet away in my parked SUV and be home in under 10 minutes. However, I'd rather release them in the hopes they will still be around the next time I visit those creeks...

Which is the same reason I stopped harvesting as a 16 year old kid...

 

[DomR]

My wife's grandmother used to like a good fish fry so I would always go out sometime after opening day and bring home some stockers. She's dead now and nobody else gets too excited about it so I stopped.

Almost the exact same for me. I'm generally fly C&R but I used to clip a half dozen each year for my wife's grandmother. She loved them but only once every other month or so. Now that she's gone I maybe will clip one or two from a marginal stream around late June or early July and throw it on the grill.

Fresh stockers suck but they improve a little after they've held over a month or two.

I haven't knowingly dispatched a wild trout in 35 years.

And if I do decide to cull a few it'll be with a flyrod, I'm not a savage after all!

 

[caddisflyer]

I notice a lot of people release fish these days on the put and take streams for the reason stated above.