Some Pennsylvania anglers will see stocked and wild trout together on opening day

A lot of these anglers seem to hit stream two to three weekends a year who purchase the trout stamp and they prob don’t get to or care to really get reliable at ID’ing the fish. Id love to know what fraction of the 501k trout stamp buyers can’t identify and fish under 5 times a year because decision making wise seems like their driving the buss.
 
Does Idaho stock over native cutthroat trout?

How about other western states?
 
jifigz said:
So it is okay to stock the remaining stream miles heavier that are not "wild trout" or "Class A" waters and damage whatever native fish live in those streams with an overabundance of "invasive" stocked trout? Hmmm.....how'd that one get thumbs up? Do native fish only matter once they are endangered or are there only a select few native speceis we'd prefer not to stock over?

In a stream such as Bald Eagle where you are going to reduce stocking points/locations but favorable conditions for trout to thrive and grow exist within the watershed, wouldn't the vast majority of those uncaught stockies find their way to the wild trout water when temperatures and conditions in the stocked parts of the stream become unhospitable? So, now we have concentrated the lion's share of the angling pressure AND those fish will eventually end up with the wild fish, anyways. The only benefit I can see is that the first month of intense angling pressure where people may catch and harvest wild fish is not going to harm the wild population as much because the angling pressure has been diverted to other points in the stream.
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Only Brook trout matter. All other species be dammed.

I say we remove the invasive smallmouth bass from the susky to let the eel and shad populations return.
 
HopBack said:
Only Brook trout matter. All other species be dammed.

I say we remove the invasive smallmouth bass from the susky to let the eel and shad populations return.
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To be fair, i don't believe the eel and shad populations are limited by smallmouth.
That is more of a "dam" issue.
 
sixfootfenwick said:
To be fair, i don't believe the eel and shad populations are limited by smallmouth.
That is more of a "dam" issue.
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Sure, but what about those smallmouth taking all my the prime water for fallfish and redbreasts?
 
jifigz said:
Sure, but what about those smallmouth taking all my the prime water for fallfish and redbreasts?
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I don't disagree with that but that wasn't what was presented in the OP i responded to.
 
There really seems to be an all or nothing thing going on here that i can't make heads or tails of.

One can advocate for native species to be protected and expanded without wishing the removal and destruction of all other species every where.

Just like those that advocate for native species must use their head and realize it isn't possible to reclaim all watersheds, others must also use their heads and realize it can be possible in others.

Removing smallmouth from the Susquehanna is just an impossible, stupid strawman of an idea.
 
tomgamber said:
This is not accurate. Idaho, as an example, has some the best fishing in the country. They stock over wild populations all the time. The also have created some incredible wild and put an take fisheries where no fish previously existed. And while they don't technically have an opening day. There is a specific date when the regs change to allow fishing on certain types of water and then close again , similar to PA. They also have water where the limit for wild fish is 2 rather than the regular limit (whatever that is these days) they close certain waters for spawning at the appropriate times. But they stock a lot. And they do it over wild populations. This is not a PA only thing as much as everyone wants to play the "woah is me" card. We're not that special. Its a little bit apples and oranges but its the truth, whatever that is these days.
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Montana has crappy trout fishing. This is probably the result of them stopping stocking over wild, sustainable, populations.

 
krayfish2 said:
This thread ranks second to East Palestine OH for worst derailment of 2023.
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Funny. Every post in this thread was about stocking over wild trout until your post.
 
Everyone would feel better if you just log onto fish brain and look at all the stocked trout carnage today. ;-). I may go harvest some stocked browns from class A brookies stream later.
 
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Yea I will also get my limit of invaders out of brook trout streams i the coming week. Is there rule that would stop 50 people from going to a brook trout stream opening day and each legally harvesting 3-5 stocked trout? Just rotating through holes atlantic salmon style and doing a stream clean up and then just donating fillets to a food bank for homeless?

Im out prospecting today
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With this thread being about stocked and wild fish, I thought I’d share something I heard someone say today while fishing the conococheague. This guy, obv one of opening day only anglers said “I caught a native brown trout under that log over there” we were over 10 miles or so downstream of where you can find wild fish (as far as I know only brookies) so the fact that some people can’t even distinguish wild fish from stocked and think browns are native is shocking 😂
 
Mikey2006 said:
With this thread being about stocked and wild fish, I thought I’d share something I heard someone say today while fishing the conococheague. This guy, obv one of opening day only anglers said “I caught a native brown trout under that log over there” we were over 10 miles or so downstream of where you can find wild fish (as far as I know only brookies) so the fact that some people can’t even distinguish wild fish from stocked and think browns are native is shocking 😂
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Or..... Maybe the guy really caught a wild brown. You know, browns have a likelihood of showing up in all sorts of places. The fact he called it a "native" brown is another comment often thrown around my parts that gives off a different form of ignorance. At least he knows about wild trout. I'm not saying the fish was or wasn't wild, but seriously, wild brown trout are very common and when the waters everywhere are cold like now, anything is possible.
 
jifigz said:
Or..... Maybe the guy really caught a wild brown. You know, browns have a likelihood of showing up in all sorts of places. The fact he called it a "native" brown is another comment often thrown around my parts that gives off a different form of ignorance. At least he knows about wild trout. I'm not saying the fish was or wasn't wild, but seriously, wild brown trout are very common and when the waters everywhere are cold like now, anything is possible.
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I’d be willing to bet there isn’t wild browns where I was fishing, and the guy was using powerbait. I’ve never heard of wild trout eating powerbait but if someone here can testify that it’s possible then maybe. It was most likely a really good looking fish or a holdover. If there is wild browns in there cool as long as they don’t get too far upstream and into the Brookie population…
 
Mikey2006 said:
I’d be willing to bet there isn’t wild browns where I was fishing, and the guy was using powerbait. I’ve never heard of wild trout eating powerbait but if someone here can testify that it’s possible then maybe. It was most likely a really good looking fish or a holdover. If there is wild browns in there cool as long as they don’t get too far upstream and into the Brookie population…
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If browns can "holdover" then there is a very strong chance that wild brown trout are present. Also, if someone can testify it's possible for a wild brown to eat powerbait.... Sure, I'll testify. I'll say it's 100% possible because I've caught many wild browns this time it the year on a stupid fly called a "sucker spawn." It's yellow yarn on a hook in the rough shape of ball, sort of. So yeah, if they can take yarn from Walmart for an egg, they can definitely take powerbait as an egg. And, powerbait has the added benefit of flavor and scent, something my Walmart yarn lacks.
 
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jifigz said:
If browns can "holdover" then there is a very strong chance that wild brown trout are present. Also, if someone can testify it's possible for a wild brown to eat powerbait.... Sure, I'll testify. I'll say it's 100% possible because I've caught many wild browns this time it the year on a stupid fly called a "sucker spawn." It's yellow yarn on a hook in the rough shape of ball, sort of. So yeah, if they can take yarn for Walmart for an egg, they can definitely take powerbait as an egg. And, powerbait has the added benefit of flavor and scent, something my Walmart yarn lacks.
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Is there any chance they would eat bread? Whenever I’m spin fishing for stockies I just drift some bread under a float and I’ll catch an occasional tiny brown that looks smaller than what they would stock and isn’t very beat up.
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For example this fish is perfect looking besides the messed up jaw from being caught a couple times. Spot pattern completely different than the state stocked fish and since the rod and gun isn’t sticking the conococheague it’s either a holdover or, if there is wild fish, one of those. If I didn’t catch it on bread way downstream in a large creek I would probably say wild fish.
 
jifigz said:
If browns can "holdover" then there is a very strong chance that wild brown trout are present. Also, if someone can testify it's possible for a wild brown to eat powerbait.... Sure, I'll testify. I'll say it's 100% possible because I've caught many wild browns this time it the year on a stupid fly called a "sucker spawn." It's yellow yarn on a hook in the rough shape of ball, sort of. So yeah, if they can take yarn for Walmart for an egg, they can definitely take powerbait as an egg. And, powerbait has the added benefit of flavor and scent, something my Walmart yarn lacks.
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Also there’s a ton of suckers/fallfish in the creek, probably the largest population in both fish size and number of fish I’ve ever seen so I guess it could make sense that a wild fish could mistake powerbait for eggs, assuming they are present
 
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