misanthropist wrote:
The problem is the mentality behind stocking. There is a large segment of anglers in Pennsylvania who think trout come from a stock truck.
I know a guy in Potter County who is completely unaware of the wild Brown Trout element. He refers to them as "colored up hold-overs". I tried to explain it to him, but It was pointless. He just refuses to believe it. There are a lot of anglers who think along these lines and I believe it's part of the problem.
I am on the extreme end of the spectrum. I completely disagree with stocking on any level. My reasons are strictly ecological.
I'm against stocking over any decent population of wild trout. But stocking trout does have it's place in PA, IMO.
I'm from SE PA and there are many streams that have a decent water quality yet become too warm in the late spring or summer to hold trout. Stocking these streams offers an opportunity for anglers to fish for trout in the cool and cold months in the winter, spring and fall seasons.
Many anglers buy fishing licenses to fish these streams for trout, so trout fishing is stocked trout fishing in the more urban areas in SE as well as much of the SW part of the state. In fact the SE and SW areas taken together have more fishing license buyers than all the rest of the state combined. In fairness to these anglers, the streams close to home with decent water quality and public access should be stocked if they have no, or a very limited number of wild trout present, IMO.