In a couple threads here lately, there have been those who stated they would bring out the bowls of popcorn to watch the reactions of some members to a question asked and I thought this would be a good time to present other questions so that those eating their popcorn could continue to be entertained:

There are two groups of fly fishermen here and one group feels a stocked trout will always remain a stocked trout with lesser intelligents and the other group feels the only "true" trout is a wild trout and I struggle with the "mind-set" that a stocked trout will never be a true trout. One is raised in a hatchery and one is raised in the river and they are both trout with different birthing locations. To say they are not both trout would be like saying a human created naturally is different than a human created artificially which makes no sense. You would not be able to tell one from the other if they are side by side. To say a wild trout is harder to catch than a freshly stocked trout would be true, but, after that stocked trout has been in the river system for awhile, it becomes harder to fool. Last year, during the government shut-down, the local hatchery here had several hundred 3 inch browns they were raising and they feared their budget would be cut and they would not have enough trout food to raise these 3 inch browns to stocking length, so, rather than have them die and go to waste, they stocked them in the river here thinking that some would make it and some would provide good forage for the larger browns. In my mind, a 3 inch brown that does survive predatation would be as close to being "wild" as one could get, but, in some fly fisherman's minds it is not "wild" but a "stocker" and I guess I am not smart enough to figure that out. Another fly fisherman and I "found" these 3 inch fish by accident one day and I took pictures of them and sent to the TWRA with the question of the possibility of spawned trout in the river and they responded with the reason 3 inch fish were put in the system. That was last year and I have since been back to that location on the river and have caught some browns that were 7 inches long and I feel they were the 3 inch fish that survived. So, with that thought out there, would I be correct to say that those who say a "stocked" trout is not a "wild" trout are only referring to the "birthing" part and that both can be considered trout? If that is true, could we just drop the "stocked" and "wild" part and say they are both just trout? If it were not for trout being raised and put into our rivers, we would not have any trout in a lot of our river systems due to what we humans have done to our water quality. I feel some fly fishermen feel that they are not true fly fishermen because someone keeps brow beating them that they are only catching "stocked" trout and that they would not be a good enough fly fishermen to catch the real "wild" trout and that is not fair and that is what causes friction between fly fishermen.

Now, pass me a bowl of popcorn and let the show begin........ For you new members, the above will raise some hackles and I only bring it up because it is what I feel and believe. Just keep eating the popcorn and enjoy the show and when it is over, things will settle down.

I agree that a freshly stocked trout will be easier to catch in the first month or so of stocking but after that they will act more like a trout that was raised in the river and, therefore, both are trout and drop the "stocked" and "wild" description.