On 13 Sep, 16:06, "Gordon MacPherson"
wrote:

For info
1. Yes - I would much prefer to fish for wild trout - and do this in Wales
and elsewhere when I can. The amount of wild trout fishing in the South of
England is negligible.

Doubtless, but fishing for stocked rainbows causes heavy environmental
damage.

Next time you catch one of those fish, do yourself a favour and have
it analysed. I guarantee you will never eat another one after seeing
the results. It takes a long time for the colouring matter to
disappear from a stocked fish. In the wild it is only usually apparent
in fish with a good portion of shrimp or similar in their diets, this
mainly results in orange flesh, not pink. Stocked rainbows are
coloured up by various means, often by means of astaxanthin. Just do a
search on "carotene colour trout", or similar for a lot of info.

Stocking policies vary considerably, most "top up" as required. Of
course they don´t tell you that. In order to be a viable concern, a
certain stocking density is required, and heavily fished fisheries
like Farmoor and many others are replenished continuously, as
otherwise people would not go there and pay their money.

TL
MC