TU supports harvest of browns

[popperfly]

What do you think of this.

Harvest of browns

[Uncle Jesse]

What do you think of this.

The browns’ presence apparently bothered some influential members of the Virginia Council, who organized the BroundUp to rid the stream of a perceived nuisance.

This statement taken directly from the article pretty tells the story, it's politics plain and simple. It's not about what's best for the stream or the public or what the public wants, but it's what "some influential members" want. I know TU has been a fine organization but this kind of "stuff" was the reason I did not join recently when they sent me another invitation.

[fishbum]

What do you think of this.

Two questions since you ask what I think.

1. Are the brook trout native?

2. Is it legal to kill the brown trout you catch? Or brook trout for that matter.

If the answer to #1 is "yes" then it is probably better for the stream and the native brook trout that the brown trout are caught and killed.

If the answer to #2 is "yes" then nobody has a gripe coming.

I don't have a dog in this fight but others should not be scorned for participating in a lawful activity

fishbum

[NJTroutbum]

I disagree 100%. If the browns had not proven to be self-sustainable and required continued stocking, then yes. But they do not. They've shown they are self-sustainable and the current fish are wild fish.

If legal to do so, then so-be-it.....same with the brookies. But that is not the goal here. The goal is for a handful of high-minded individuals pushing their preference.

Waters change.....and environments morph as time goes by. To insist that the ONLY environmental answer is to go back to colonial times is not always the best answer. In this day and age when water quality is so much in question...the strongest fish will prevail. Once they're naturally reproducing, removing them is no less a manipulation of the environment than the original stocking. IMO

[rainbowchaser]

As presented in this article the assault on the brown trout population would seem to be unwarranted but I would like more information before condemning it. Is the brown trout population expanding into the headwaters and threatening the native brookies? Once we have removed the natural balance of an eco-system we often have little choice but to continue making adjustments. Though I would prefer to see those decisions made by fisheries managers rather than an NGO like TU it is also true that sometimes fisheries mangers can get too focused on pounds of catchable fish and lose sight of other management goals.

[MrFishingToughGuy]

First, that stream is - well, was - historically a great place to get into large NATIVE brookies. Since the last few drought summers, the brookies have really taken a hit.

There are fewer and fewer places where native brook trout thrive, and more and more places where browns are establishing themselves. When these situations overlap in the same stream, the results usually favor the browns. If you want wild browns, fish your favorite east coast tailwaters. Leave the native char to finally reclaim some of their original range that we've decimated by mining, deforestation, development, other pollution and now piscivorous trout.

A no brainer.

[NJTroutbum]

And just to play devils advocate.......what happens when all efforts to save the native Brookie fails and a fishable water never produces itself? Then what? Leave the waters basically devoid of fish? When a wild browntrout population has already proven itself?

[sagefisher]

There is a river in eastern Idaho where they have made it mandatory to kill any Rainbow trout because the Rainbows are hurting the native Cutthroat population. That goes against my grain so I will simply never fish that river. No one is going to tell me I HAVE to kill such a wonderful fish as a Rainbow, nor would they tell me to do the same for a Brown Trout. I simply would not fish that area either.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[MrFishingToughGuy]

Read the description of said event. It was restricted to a 3-day period and did not involve a kill mandate of any kind (i.e. purely volunteer-based). AND it's being done within legal limits with respect to regulations. When your cuttthroats are gone, maybe something like this will have mattered. But who cares, it's not going to happen in OUR lifetimes, right?

[NJTroutbum]

....."When your cuttthroats are gone, maybe something like this will have mattered. But who cares, it's not going to happen in OUR lifetimes, right?".....

Actually, I don't feel that it is as simple as that. our world is changing, in many more ways than just which trout happen to be found in a particular water. In many areas of the country, if it were not for brown trout, countless waters would be devoid of trout completely due to logging, mining, farming and development practices a century ago. Far more brook trout streams are threatened by development and farming practices than by the brown trout. Personally, where both are wild and self-sustaining...leave them be. Environmental issues will sort out which one makes it....and if things work out well, both will make it.