Why I Love Stocked Brook Trout

October 31, 2012

By Kirk Deeter

I hear the following all the time: "Oh, that's a great place to fish, but most of the fish are stocked." Or, "I caught a 20-inch rainbow the other day, but I'm pretty sure it was a stocker."

Of course it was a stocker! Most of the rivers and lakes in this country wouldn't have rainbow trout at all if they weren't stocked in the first place. There would be no brown trout anywhere in North America were it not for stocking (at least not stocking that happened years ago). Some anglers have landed on a kinder rationalization for certain trout, calling those that were presumably born in a river "wild," just not "native."

Since when did a "stocked" trout become a second-class river citizen?

I'll admit to the snobbery of preferring wild fish over those with rubbed off fins and blunted noses (the results of having been raised in hatcheries). A native trout is best of all. There's something to be said for catching a brook trout in an eastern pond, or a native cutthroat in the high country, though recent science has shown that the greenbacks we thought were native probably aren't after all.

Let me be clear: When and where it's feasible to protect and preserve native species in natural habitat, I think we should do that. I'm on board with that ideal 100 percent. And if that means nuking the brook trout out of a western stream where they were put years ago in order to reintroduce the species that was originally and rightfully there, so be it.

But let's get real. Fly fishing—as we know it—wouldn't exist without stocked trout. The genie is already out of the bottle. That's why we have rainbow trout in places like New York (and Texas and Hawaii), and brown trout in Montana and Idaho. It's why there are salmon and steelhead in the Great Lakes.

And perhaps most importantly, stocked trout is the reason many of us fly fish at all. I remember visiting the fish hatchery near my home in Pennsylvania when I was a boy, and staring for hours at the churning masses of trout, just admiring and hoping for a shot to catch them when they were put in the river. My young son helps me stock a river every summer, and he has as much fun putting them in the water as he does taking them out with rod and reel. The more people who catch fish, the more there are who ultimately care about wild rivers and native trout. In my mind, it's not a stretch to assume that the stocked rainbows are ultimately as much allies of the native fish as they are foes.

Lake trout in Yellowstone Lake that have decimated the native cutthroats? Wrong fish in the wrong place. Kill 'em all. We apparently cannot have both species, so we have to choose. Tough deal.

But let's keep everything in perspective. It's not only okay to love stocked trout, the fishing world wouldn't be the same without them.

Comments (19)

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from jaukulele wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

Tough call for me. I love catching them. Of course, I would love to see the lakes and streams back in their native states of being. I live in Oklahoma and I don't know that we have any native lakes at all.

Bottom line, I can enjoy our current situation but desire to see responsible management of it (monitoring our activities to ensure protection of existing native life, etc.).

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from buckhunter wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

A few months back Dr. Todd had a comment stating the stocking boom in the late 1800's fueled the fishing revolution during the same period.

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from nehunter92 wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

I‘m going to have to go with the animal farm explanation on this one, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Of course I don’t mean that literally, but there is something to it. While there is nothing wrong with having a blast catching a bunch of stocked fish, I have to say that there is something pretty special about catching a native fish in its natural range that is there without the help of humans. Catching a brook trout out of a long forgotten White Mountain stream in the middle of nowhere is a hell of an experience, and I’m not sure that catching stocked fish is quite the same.

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from fliphuntr14 wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

i volunteered at a hatchery in wisconsin when i was in high school and that experience changed my life, (im a Jr. environmental science major with an emphasis in fisheries propagation), while in the hatchery i netted and vaccinated 150000 brown trout. It's very rewarding to know that what you've done will be felt by anglers all around your area and keep people going after and catching these fish in some of the wildest most beautiful places around.

I think people get the idea that stockers are easier to catch which I think is really true with in the first few weeks after being stocked (they'll bite at almost anything small and brown like hatchery food) but the fish must use instincts and keen senses to avoid dying like the indigenous species did in previous generations. An old trout may have to survive just as many if not more hardships than a native did. The ecosystems are very similar with predators but, in a majority of places lower in food producing areas and with drastically higher fluctuation in water levels that did not exist in the same way when these fish evolved into what they are today.
My word of advice is to try not to think to hard about it, these fish are just as hard to catch and should be just as rewarding no matter where they spent the first 6 months or so of there life. If it really bothers you that much there are plenty of restoration projects all over the nation that could use an extra hand or even expertise.

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from jcarlin wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It seems to me that after the first week or two of being confused, out of thier element, and the recipients of an aerial bombardment not seen since the Battle of Britain they get thier priorities straight. After a month they have but three concerns, eating, breeding, and avoiding predators of all varieties. The ones that are left are generally good at it. Sounds like a respectable fish to me.

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from Dcast wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

Those of you who speak of native/ unstocked/ natural born trout feel he same about pheasants, turkeys, some cases deer/Elk? Pheasants are not native to the USA they are a Asian fowl. Turkeys in many parts of the country have been stocked/restocked to other parts of the country. Same with deer and elk, Tennesse wouldn't have elk today without restocking. I find it funny when people talk of native species as the only way yet I'm sure they too hunt and/or fish for non-native species thinking they are native! It's simple without stocking/restocking conservation wouldn't exist as we know it today and your fishing and hunting would more than likely be the same! Stop and think.

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from elkslayer wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

Stocked fish are fun (and I fish for them regularly but native wild fish are more fun for me.

Dcast

I for one do put non-native land species on my list of least favorite creatures. I have hunted turkeys and had fun doing it but I wouldn't miss them if we got rid of them all. I tolerate the brown trout and brook trout better than the bass and perch but I would eventually like to see them all go away also.

When I read early accounts of explorations in Idaho and the abundance of the native fish, fowl and big game I can't help but wish death on the introduced non-native types in Idaho. I wouldn't miss the bass or other warm water fish species at all.

I would welcome the removal of turkeys and pheasants and look forward to larger populations of grouse and quail.

I am frustrated that my fish and game department goes on and on about the difficulties of restoring native species but simultaneously maintains the non-natives.

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from Hornd wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

Stocked trout are great for filling the smoker. All the native trout go back.
I hope they can do something about Yellowstone's Cutts. They should sell Lakers at the Parks lodges to cover the cost of Cutthroat restoration. After a visit to that region, how can one not want to help? I always thought Lakers to be unpalatable, till I tried one on vacation, grill cooked in MI. Was every bit as good as Steelhead from Costco.

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from Jack Donachy wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

Preserving and enhancing wild fisheries necessitates that we take care of our rivers, streams, lakes and oceans. Stockers can be (and often are) dumped into degraded water where they have no business. This practice may, in the short run, bring more fishermen out, but it sends the wrong message: that we can have our trout and pollute (or overfish) our water too.

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from themadflyfisher wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

Here in PA. if it wasn't for stocked trout we wouldn't be fishing for trout. Early mining destroyed most of the streams and rivers in the state. Brookies are the native here but there are only a handful of streams that still produce true native brookies. Pa. has a great trout stocking program that does hundreds of streams, lakes, and ponds multiple times a year every year. I help stock about 15 streams in my area every year and love being apart of it. Granted I prefer to fish the head waters and tribs of these streams for "wild" trout but often fish the stocked waters also.

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from fliphuntr14 wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

I should mention that biodiversity is very important everything really does have a purpose, we have a tendency to pick the easiest to keep alive when stocking. In the case of brown trout, they can breed and tend to withstand slightly higher water temperatures by comparison to rainbow and brooke trout. A proliferation of one species is not good for anything as the small genetic deferences that have been achieved by there ancestors to survive the specific problems that have arose over thousands of years of evolution.

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from shane wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

I've done a little trout genocide. Killed quite a few Yellowstone lakers and I murder every rainbow I legally can in brookie country. The list of brainless greedy people at all levels ruining the places and species I love is too long. Acid rain makers, rainbow stockers, splake makers, I could do without all of you.

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from Dcast wrote 32 weeks 3 days ago

Elkslayer, I'm glad you see through the phony outrage and lack of understanding. Now if people had more common sense and knowledge like you then we would have less of the bickering about things they know nothing of. I have to wonder if the problem with grouse populations is because of the emphasis on pheasants? Something to ponder!

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from fishman417 wrote 32 weeks 2 days ago

All trout are decendents of stocked trout. What happens is a soon as they stock them most get cought, because they will not move out of that spot and people will catch most. Or in the case of brook trout if they stock them off the side of the road into a huge pool why would they move but what they dont relize is people will catch them. I will admit i catch trout that are just stocked but people need to know when to stop.

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from wisc14 wrote 32 weeks 2 days ago

jackdonachy: if the stream is polluted and in poor condtition trout will not live there, stocked or not.

a lot of rivers i fish in wisconsin have wild brookies in the upstream portions, as you go downstream you run into more of the stocked brown. i like to catch fish. habitat and clean water is more important to me than thinking about whether the fish was stocked or not

dcast makes an excellent point about pheasants and turkeys. also even native species, like deer, are artificially high in wisconsin compared to what they were before human settlement

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from Sara Crusade wrote 32 weeks 1 day ago

I do most of my fishing on a military post. Lakes are man-made and the fish are stocked. But after a hard week, there's nothing like sitting lakeside with my pole and fishing. My psyche doesn't care if the fish are stocked.... As I tell my co-workers, "The fish in the lake are a far sight wilder than the dead and frozen ones in the meat department at the grocery store."

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from Kybill54 wrote 32 weeks 1 day ago

I love to fish.I don't care if they are stock or wild.A true fisherman enjoys the catch.If it's small we laugh about it.If it's big,we hope to land it.If it gets away we smile and hope for another chance.That is what a true fisherman hopes for.

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from Merkincrab wrote 31 weeks 3 days ago

Sorry to disagree. But I'd rather just fish "wild" fish....stockers that have gone native after several seasons are OK. But nothing beats wild and native unstocked fish. Montana has the right idea - no fish stocking. The natives will reproduce and the watershed will be the better for it as long as there is reasonable regulation for limits and catch and release. Yeah, not every place is Montana, I get it.

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from Nyflyangler wrote 31 weeks 1 day ago

I'd like to see someone find a decent sized river here in the US and start a program to raise and stock Mongolian taimen in it.

Who wouldn't like a fishery for five foot long 100 pound salmonids?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hucho_taimen

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