Willi wrote:



Halfordian Golfer wrote:


FWIW - I was browsing the CDOW web page. Apparently a few of the major
hatcheries are now WD free and they will, once again, be stocking
millions
of catchable fish this year. The ones that make it to next spring
should be
delicious. This is great news for all anglers here and don't kid
yourself if
you think otherwise. There is a video link on the tremendous benefits
of the
hatchery program to Colorado fisheries, which simply wouldn't exist
here in
most places without it and which funds the research which protects
what we
have and makes the indiginous recovery possible and more. If it
weren't for
hatcheries, there'd be no rainbow trout, the once state fish, in Colorado
(So. Platte, Frying Pan, Roaring Fork..i.e. "The Front Nine"). And,
they are
excellent smoked.




I don't understand how the hatcheries "fund the research which protects
what we have." Raising catchable trout is VERY expensive. It takes
revenue from our strapped DOW, it doesn't provide it.

I'm not anti hatcheries, they do play important roles but stocking
catchables in the vast majority of Colorado's streams and rivers is a
waste a money and is destructive to the fisheries.

I may be "kidding myself" but the fishing on the Poudre and the Big
Thompson and most of our local streams is much better since they stopped
stocking catchables. There's good research to back up the counter
productive effects of stocking catchable trout into streams and rivers
that can support a healthy stream bred population. If you think the
stream and river fishing was better when they stocked catchables, you
haven't been out much in the last few years.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like supporting hatcheries so you can
put some fish on the table is more than a little inefficient. You'd be
far better off buying them at the market, and so would everyone else.

It's actually worse than inefficient. It's harmful to wild fish populations.

I suppose it's inevitable, now that the "Halfordian Golfer" is back,
that we'll get into tedious discussions of C&R vs. C&K. What a
pointless, sterile exercise. I'll happily kill and eat fish when it's
practical and when the regs allow it, but I don't need some lame,
semi-mystical philosophy to justify my sport fishing.

I'll soon be in the Florida Keys, fishing for bonefish, permit, and
tarpon. None of those species are worth spit for eating. So what?
They're fun and challenging to catch, or at least to attempt to catch.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.