Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Wild vs. Stocked

I value trout differently from some people. Some people place value only in size, others place value by beauty, others by purity.

I ALWAYS place wild trout over stocked trout, regardless of size. That big brown I caught yesterday was a good fish, and hard fish to catch, but the five inch wild brown I caught in my home water today is just so much more remarkable. I don't care how many little wild trout like that I catch, they will always mean more to me than any big sloppy tank scrubber. All of the fish bellow except the stocked brookie were caught today.
Stocked Brown

Wild Brown 

Stocked Brookie

Wild Brook Trout

So keep that in mind. Stocked trout are artificial. They have bad genetics, the push out wild fish, and they are often unsustainable. Wild ALWAYS trumps stocked.

5 comments:

  1. Good lesson!! I agree, nothing better than naturel. Love the colors.
    Tie, fish, write and photo on...

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  2. I feel similar in many ways. But even stocked fish have a hierarchy. Take the Farmington's survivor strain for example. I value them more than I do a typical stockie. They are the progeny of some of the river's best fish and are smarter and better looking than your usual fresh stockie. It's all relative I guess.

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    1. I agree, the survivor strain & CR program has been great, I just wish it would be applied to other streams that holdover trout, like the Black Ledge and the Jeremy.

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  3. RM
    One awesome trip for sure, I wish I had the luxury of fishing for wild trout; my closet is the Smokey Mountains---I am blessed to at least have trout to fish for 20 minutes from my house even if they are stocked. Beautiful colors on all those landed---thanks for sharing

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    1. I get it. Take what you can get. If I had a river with big wild trout I wouldn't need to spend time hunting big broodstock fish.

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