Fishing for stocked fish.

Considerations on angling for stock fish.

I have a numbre of objections to angling for stocked rainbow trout.
These are based entirely on the facts known to me, and are not a
result of "snobbery" or any other such silly considerations, as some
people seem to assume.

1. The use of such fish is a massive drain on the environment.

2. There is no sensible comparison whatsoever between such fish and
any wild fish.

3. Although such fish may appear outwardly similar to wild fish,
after a period in suitable conditions, they do not behave like wild
fish. In many cases being almost tame, and can be caught easily using
various tricks, or completely outlandish concoctions such as power
bait, to which they have been accustomed artificailly. They may also
be easily caught using crushed trout pellets. Many of the flies used
to catch such fish have no counterparts in nature, and are taken by
the fish mainly as a result of their extreme conditioning during
rearing to react to food items in a particular manner. They have been
been conditioned to do so, and rarely possess even a fraction of the
wariness of wild fish. Especialy when in shoals, which they often
maintain until they are caught or die, they are extremely competitive.

4. In the majority of cases, these fish are badly contaminated with
accumulated poisons and toxins. This is also a result of being fed on
processed fishmeal, which concentrates various toxins, mainly in the
fatty cells of such fish, and also the chenical and other complex drug
residues used in their production.

5. I find the production of such animals purely for the purpose of
playing with them distasteful. They are produced at great cost,
damage, and danger to the environment, purely for the personal
gratification of anglers who wish to fish for them. This is not at all
the same thing as directly farming a food source.

6 As a result of the concentration on such practices, rivers and other
natural environments are being more and more negelected, and even
considered "inferior", because nothing even remotely resembling the
number and amount of fish can be caught there, and anglers
expectations have as a result of this, been raised far beyond what is
normal, or even remotely sensible in this regard. massive amounts of
money and resources are being wasted in order to provide personal and
"convenient" gratification to anglers, which would be far better spent
on improving the environment, and not in activel destroying it.

7. Also as a result of conditioning, many of these fish will only
feed at certain times, corresponding to the feeding times in the
hatcheries and feeding stews in which they were reared. Such aberrant
behaviour is often referred to as "the evening rise". In some places
where the fish have time to become acclimatised, ( although they never
entirely lose their conditioning), this may even be the case, but it
is mainly the result of conditioning to feed at a certain time.

There are a number of other reasons as well, but those are the main
ones.

TL
MC