The prior thread, “Looking Back Modern advancement”, had some expected responses. However, here’s a question for you:
Here in the north east and some of the south east, if it were not for the introduction of Brown and Rainbow trout, would you even be fly fishing or fly tying at all?
Deezel
Deezel;
I probably wouldn’t have moved!
If the state stopped stocking rainbow trout alltogether that would be a reason for a celebration.
I admit, I do like brown trout.
Of course, I don’t live there, any longer, Deezel, but when I did live and fish back east it was seldom that we fly fished for trout even though they existed then of course.
“Trout & Fly Fishing” seems to have taken on the same aspect and belief, that; “Trout Unlimited is a Fly Fishing based Organization”.
One, doesn’t necessarily, mean the other!
here in the UK, if it wasn’t for rainbow stocked landlocked waters a lot of people would never be fly fishing. luckily in scotland you always have the choice of a brown trout water or two, but if rainbows are the only thing peple have access to, then I say go and enjoy. I know I wouldn’t have started fly fishing if it wasn’t for the easy access to rainbow trout waters.
absolutely!!! theres more to flyfishing than just browns and rainbows!!
You guys seem to miss my point. I’m not saying ‘stocking’ is bad, necessarily. I’m saying that ‘native’ trout were decimated and just about made extinct here in the northeast mostly by the industries of tanning, acid factories, and to a lesser degree by population growth, deforestation, sewerage, railroads, roads and highways by the turn of the 20th century. Don’t believe me, read some historical narratives about it. The Brown and Rainbow trout were brought in to save the fly fishing.
"1,470 trout, weighing 120 pounds, were last week taken from the Beaverkill region by a couple of Saugerties butchering “sportsmen.”
Other catches reported:
“… filled their baskets with 52 pounds of trout”.
“… in two days fishing caught fourteen hundred to fifteen hundred trout”.
“… it was stated that the men caught 300 trout, which they considered inadequate, because poaching scamps had swept the kill with a net”.
“… in one days fishing our party killed nineteen hundred and eighteen trout”.
“… two fishermen … caught between four hundred and five hundred nice trout”.
“A few … drew from their native element over sixteen hundred of the spotted trout”.
“Fish kills occurred regularly downstream of virtually all acid factories …”
“Fish kills were also the result of carelessness and incompetent laborers”.
“Some plants even discharged their lethal poisons directly into the stream”.
“Streams below acid factories reeked from their putrid discharges, and water samples taken near them often revealed that the stream was anoxic, containing no oxygen”.
“The plant on Cadosia Creek had ruined the fishing from the mouth upstream 2 miles”.
“The Delaware Gazette on August 22, 1894, reported that vats overflowed at the Spring Brook acid factory, and acid entered the stream, killing a ‘ton’ of trout”.
These are primary source quotes and all are pre-1900. They are documented references from the book, Trout Fishing In The Catskills, by Ed VanPut. There is no question that, absent the introduction of Brown and Rainbow trout into these areas, there would be no trout in the Catskills and most likely other trout fishery regions where public access was permitted.
Deezel
I’m not bashing stocking, as it gives us a lot more opportunities to fish for trout than we would have if it was just wild fish waters.
What I’m bashing is stocking ugly rainbows when the state can certainly stock brook trout and brown trout.
But yes, without the state ever stocking brown or rainbow trout, I would still be fly fishing and tying flies for trout.
I would most likely still be fly fishing if it were not for introduced trout. I live in an area that has a number of bass water (both smallies and largemouth) and enough bluegill to fill a boat without harming the populations. All of which are easily caught on a fly rod.
However, the local tailwaters which contain stocked brown and rainbow trout and the streams in the Smokey Mountains taht contain wild rainbow and brown populations (no longer stocked but naturally reproducing populations) sure do give me some fun catching trout and add another level to fly fishing.
I guess it’s to say, I don’t mind it and most of the water I fish (except Smokey Mountains) is not natural trout habitat so there were no native trout for them to wipe out.
Jeff
BROOKIES! Also Grayling a long time ago here in MI. Brookies are the best in my book anyways.
Probably not because it was rainbows that got me into fly fishing. BUT…I now fish for everything with the fly rod.
Being from Iowa and the Midwest in general I can’t say that trout had much to do with my getting interested in fly fishing other than some of the stories i used to read as a kid in Outdoor Life or Sports Afield. I made my first fly from the feathers of an old stuffed parrot that was in a box of junk from a rummage sale that my mother brought home when I was about 12. I didn’t have a fly rod so I tied it to the 12# line on an old Zebco and cast it as far as I could and caught bluegills and some bass. Then I lost touch with fly fishing for a lot of years but then actually bought a cheap Shakespeare fly rod and started using it a little to fish for panfish when I was in my 30’s some where. I never caught a trout of any kind until 1984 on a trip to Lake Taneycomo before anyone even heard of Branson Mo. Those fish didn’t impress me much at the time because we caught them just like we did catfish here, with a slip sinker and corn or worms fished on the bottom of the lake off of the fishing docks. Fast forward to 2001 when we took a trip south with our brand new camper and stopped at Bennett Springs for a couple of days. I had been using a fly rod off and on fishing in ponds for gills and bass for many years, but this was a new adventure. I caught my first rainbow trout on a #14 Renegade dry fly that first afternoon and haven’t stopped fly fishing since. So I will say that the stocking of rainbows and browns had nothing to do with my becoming a fly fisherman but it has had everything to do with my growth and education and improvement as one. All I can say is “THANK YOU” to who ever started the stocking programs that I so much enjoy today.
In the 1950s a small stream near Hull Quebec downstream from the Eddy match company actually caught fire from various pollutants the smoke from that fire was very toxic. Today you can catch any number of fine trout and spiny ray fishes in that once ravaged stream.
On to your question. Yes I believe so because 5 types of androgynous pacific salmon swam our rivers and lakes. Plus the landlocked sockeye Kokanee, Called kickaninnie by the native people, were present in abundance in the lakes. They are superior tasting to trout and they fight about the same. Big ones always sound immediately and opposed to trout that will often start by leaping.