My friends join me for an honest discussion about the trout we pursue. All of us fish for every kind of trout on the list: wild trout, stocked trout, holdovers, fingerlings and club trout. And all of these trout hold value -- but not equally. There are major differences in the types of trout we catch, and stocked fish are often nothing like their wild counterparts . . .

Continue reading Podcast — Ep. 4: Wild Trout vs Stocked — The Hierarchy of River Trout at Troutbitten.

It’s time for the fish commission to truly protect, preserve and enhance our wild trout streams, whether that is easy, or whether it’s hard. Stop stocking over all Class A wild trout stream sections.

It’s the right thing to do. And sometimes, that’s where government policy should start . . .

Continue reading The Mismanagement of “Class A” Wild Trout at Troutbitten.

The best wild trout populations are specific to their own river systems, and they’ve adapted to the seasonal highs and lows, to whatever the decades of chance have brought to the collective population. The strength to thrive and persist is in those wild genes . . .

. . . Stocked trout are genetically different and conditioned to be different than wild trout. They feed aggressively and grow fast. That never changes. And this is nothing like our wary wild trout . . .

Continue reading Does a Stocked Trout Ever Become Wild? at Troutbitten.

You probably voted this past Tuesday, right? You walked into the booth and cast a ballot in this midterm election cycle for your state and local representatives. Or maybe you voted early. Maybe you mailed in a ballot. However you voted, it’s pretty easy to think that your one, single vote didn’t matter much, because even close state elections are often determined by thousands of votes. It’s understandable to feel like your vote doesn’t make a difference. It does, but that’s another discussion . . .

By contrast, you can personally have a direct influence on the way wild trout policy is directed in Pennsylvania. And many of you have.

On October 16, 2018, the Pennsylvania Fish Commission voted to add 3.8 miles of Catch-and-Release regulated water on Penns Creek. This
“Section 5” water now doubles the miles of C&R river available to anglers, and it protects the Class A wild trout population within. This is an enormous success, and many of you are part of it . . .

Continue reading Penns Creek Catch-and-Release Miles Doubled — Yes, You Did It at Troutbitten.

This is too good to let pass. My friend Chase Howard restarted and rejuvenated his blog, Dirt Roads and Blue Lines. And recently, he penned a short commentary on the state of the stocked vs wild trout situation in Pennsylvania.

Chase calls the stocked trout syndrome "The Aquaculture Culture," and his choice of words is appropriate. There truly is an ingrained culture. Many Pennsylvanian's have grown to expect (and feel they deserve) stocked trout in their local creeks, not because the creek can't support wild trout and not because there isn't already a wild trout population that would thrive if given a chance. No, the Aquaculture Culture expects and downright demands stocked trout in the creek because that's the way it's always been, in their lifetime.

As I've argued countless times here on Troutbitten, stocked trout do have a place in Pennsylvania. Our state hatcheries should continue to raise trout and stock them in streams that cannot and do not already support wild trout. I'm thankful for stocked trout. I caught my limit of stocked fish today . . .

Continue reading The Aquaculture Culture (from Dirt Roads and Blue Lines) at Troutbitten.

I’m no scientist. I’m not a fisheries biologist or an entomologist — I’m just a fisherman. But you probably sensed that already. When anyone speaks about the negative effects of stocking hatchery trout over wild trout populations, the inevitable challenge for proof of the matter arises. That’s more than fair. Sure, I can give you […]

Continue reading Clarity and Science about Wild vs Stocked Trout, from Halverson’s ‘An Entirely Synthetic Fish,’ and from The Troutlook at Troutbitten.

Is this a wild trout movement? There’s certainly more outspoken support for Pennsylvania’s wild trout than I’ve ever seen. The massive turnout at the Wild Trout Summit last Saturday, on a cool and partly-cloudy day (perfect for actually fishing instead of talking about it) was a huge show of support for wild trout, not only […]

Continue reading We Are Wild Trout | Looking forward, after Pennsylvania’s first wild trout summit at Troutbitten.

We believe wild trout populations should be protected, wherever they are found. That starts by eliminating the stocking of hatchery trout over good wild trout populations. It continues by finding struggling wild trout populations and helping them -- strengthening their numbers by improving water quality and habitat.

Neither state nor private organizations should be permitted to stock over established wild trout populations. 

We believe that wild trout, wherever they are found, should be given a chance.

But Why?

I asked some of my fishing friends why wild trout matter, and I thought their answers would be similar. Surprisingly, they weren't. Their reasons for loving and caring about wild trout vary significantly in message and tone.

In truth, there are hundreds of reasons why wild trout matter. And my friends gave me impassioned answers. Here are some of their words . . .

Continue reading Why Wild Trout Matter at Troutbitten.

Louis Cahill submitted a public service announcement for the fly fishing community the other day. With his post “All That Glitters,” the Gink and Gasoline author, photographer and fishing guide cleared up the mess about what a real Golden Trout is. And it’s not a hatchery mutant. Louis writes about the hatchery-born palomino rainbow trout: […]

Continue reading Streamside | All that Glitters — Gink & Gasoline on Golden Trout at Troutbitten.

I’m fascinated by the arbitrary lines people create for themselves. Nowhere in life do I see the tendency to define and delineate so strongly as it’s seen in fishermen. Anglers constantly draw lines about how they fish, about what kind of fisherman they are, and more emphatically, what kind of fisherman they are not . . .

Continue reading Where the Lines Are Drawn at Troutbitten.