Looking Ahead To 2014 Trout Stocking

[Ham]

http://www.agfc.com/fishing/Documents/Trout/TroutStocking2014.pdf

Looking over the projected stocking information a few things jumped out at me.

White River below BSL getting 34K Brookies. I've only caught a couple of those little guys in the White itself. MOST of them will quickly be eaten by Brown Trout, but maybe a few will grow up. Norfork is also getting 14K

150K Cutties vs 105K Browns.

Despite the fact that more Cutts are stocked than Browns, the average guy chances a whole lot more Browns than Cutts. I believe this is best indicator of how well the Browns do with natural reproduction

I really wish Cutts did better in the White. It is possible that insect populations are still building up since the dam was built MAYBE over time the Cutts will do better as we have more winged insects for then to feed on. I hope so anyway.

I catch a fair number of small Browns with perfect fins. Makes me smile and makes me want to only fish barbless hooks.

Interesting stuff being done over at the Spring River as well.

Anything jump out at y'all?

[Quillback]

I question the need to stock brook trout if in fact so few of them are caught by anglers.

[Ham]

i only know what my experience is. Your best shot at catching one is soon after stocking within sight of one of the dams.

I have personally seen a LARGE Brown repeatedly running thru a group of small Brookies. I'm not sure IF he ate any of them, but he sure was giving it his best effort.

I don't know how cost effective the whole deal is. Bows and Browns do a lot better than Cutts and Brookies. Maybe we should try Grayling and Bull Trout.

[Quillback]

When I lived in Washington state they would stock fingerling trout in some of the lakes. If left unmolested the trout could grow and reach keeper size. Unfortunately many of the lakes had bass that had been introduced by the bucket biologists. They'd dump the fingerlings in by a boat launch, there'd be thousands of them hanging around the launch. Go back a couple of days later, most of the fingerlings would be gone and there'd be a dozen fat bass finning in the shallows.