It does not really matter, in my mind, as long as people eat them and have
fun doing it. It is now different than buying fish from the grocery store
except that you get to enjoy being outside rather than standing in line at
the store.

--
James Ehlers

Outdoors Magazine
www.outdoorsmagazine.net



"Gene C" wrote in message
om...
I find this extremely depressing on many levels.

I was out of town for a couple of days in the middle of last week. I
got home and knew that they were supposed to complete the fall
stocking for Elk Creek in Cecil County Maryland. They did. On Friday
afternoon they completed it. They put a lot of nice fish in the
creek. Me, and two other fly fisherman must have a caught a dozen
fish. Most of them were in the 12 to 15 inch range. That was
amazing! Even more amazing was the fact that within a couple of hours
of going into the water they were going after woolly buggers! Of the
12 or so fish we caught, one guy kept one.

I fished again on Sunday for a while and the vast majority of the fish
were gone! One guy had 5 real nice ones on a stringer laying in
shallow water.

Now I know put-and-take has it's place in fisheries management but
these fish could have been there all winter. The water temps are
right. The food might be a little scarce for that many fish but we
could have had fun catching them for the next 5 months!

I'm not a fan of PETA but I also see no point in pushing fish to a
slow death of suffocation.

Maybe I'm misguided but that mentality seems so selfish, so short
sighted? I know this is the reality but..? Maybe all streams should
have delayed harvest for a couple of weeks after stocking. That would
allow the people who want to CATCH fish a chance to do so before the
meat men arrive and yank them all out of the water for good.
Any comments?