Some 'stockers' I caught for Friday

I keep stockers,,mostly,,,since that is a place and take program. Rarely keep a wild or native fish of any type (cept for catfish and a few bluegills to eat). But, I do like trout. This was yesterday,,,caught a limit of even nicer ones today. Picture of them later probably.

Nice catch! And I agree with ya stockers I don't much care about keeping but a native fish I've never kept one.

Nice meal there,what'd ya catch them on ?

Nice. I've kept the occasional channel cat or panfish as well, no shame in keeping some stockers. Some trout sounds good...

Most of them on Copper Johns,,,a personal styled 'grey/silver minnow', a 'get this',,,white wooly bugger. Snow white. Works good it seems on stockers. Tied it cause I know some of the spin fishermen catch trout on white 'mr twister' type rubber jigs,,and yes it works. I was surprised,,but pleased to find this out. But I'm sure I caught more on the Copper John's than anything else, but I also fished it more.

It's dreadful the small size of the stocked fish here in this area. Once you get east past Blacksburg toward the Roanoke River,,they increase in size greatly. More influential area I suppose. We are just that dreadful western frontier area blight on The Peoples Republic of Virginia.

Just out of curiousity, how do they mark the stockers? Down on the North Shore of Lake Superior where I fish for Trout, they clip the adipose off. The had a whole bunch of clips they did for different stuff, Maxilla, adipose etc. You need a danged code book to keep a fish there.

Dan, the Dismal Creek,,and Wolf Creek,,were I fish for stockers,,have no wild trout in them. By the end of the week,,most of these will be gone,,two weeks there will not be a one left. Before stocking programs,,long time'ago,,there might have been native trout,,but today the stocked trout never stay in long enough to reproduce. It's a shame of the small stream and too many fishermen I suppose. These are public sections on National Forest and it's basically just a 'place and take' program. Sad in a way, but that's the reality of it. And,,as you can see from the picture,,it's shameful the size of the stocked trout they DO put in. Gives a guy a bit of guilt. Guess I could turn'em loose, but in 10min the next guy is gonna catch them and take'em home to eat, so a couple times a year I keep me a few to eat. Sometimes,,most times,,I put'em back.

Now,,we do have streams with native and wild trout,,most all of these are on pvt property,,thus they can survive. I fish some of these areas were I have permission,,and never keep a trout unless something horrible goes wrong in the tussle.

Guys that live in good native and wild trout fishing , count your blessings. This trout deal here is one reason I like to fish small-mouth that are in the streams naturally. Hardly anyone will keep a small-mouth and that just suits the stuffing right outta me. I haven't keep a dozen small mouth in my life and that was when I was just a kid.

I'd love to live in wild trout country like the guys out west have. I'd keep me one trout on occasions,,maybe...and enjoy knowing the ones I let go were natural to the area and would be there tomorrow for my return.

Dan, you do need to know the rules for the GL fisheries.It does get confusing. In Lake Ontario, there's Steelhead, domestic bows, King, Coho, and Atlantic salmon, browns, and the occasional brookie up in the tribs. Some are wild, some are stocked- the fin clips help you know the difference and what's what.
Flyguy, that's a nice meal there, and a fun catch. In mid-April when the Vt. trout season opens, the state stocks some ponds near me that are a blast to fish in my tube or yak. I release them until mid-May, as they quickly learn to adapt to eating insects and start actively feeding on the evening hatches. Then they'll take dries! At that point I start to keep some. Even though I'll steelhead fish between now and then, looking at that pic has got my blood going. Thanks.


Charlie

I worked for a while in a large trout hatchery. Even counting them (thousands and thousands) was mind-numbing tedious, and we did that by weight.
I can't imagine handling each individual fish to clip a fin