Every year the same tired arguments. Don't worry they will always dump more dumb stockers for you to catch in the park and the Niangua than they ever will in the urban program.
I love to catch any fish. In Feb driving a few miles to catch active fish was a lot easier than making a bunch of 280-300 mile round trips to catch trout. Still did a few long trips to chase browns every year. Also I would take my daughter on those local trips when she was too small to wade the faster water that I would fish for brown trout.
Thanks Daryk. I have only fished nine of the urban ponds/lakes. I did fish three in one day once 😉. Usually I would only fish until we had our four fish limits. Even so I caught 65 trout from the pond in Columbia over the years. Saved me hundreds of miles in travel to fish the Current.
I think that 275 trout in a 5-6 acre pond is pretty good stocking rate. The last two lakes I fished out this way had 700 fish stocked in 32 to 46 acre lakes. I will say that last spring I fished a 3 acre pond that they stocked 500 trout.
I haven't trout fished in IL. My only trout in OH was from the Mad river.