It Is Almost Time For The Very Best Trout Fishing Of The Entire Season.

[ozark trout fisher]

You have just pointed out the main issue. "Urban", what gives them special treatment over rural areas that are not close to trout fishing. My tax dollars do not seem to be evenly distributed.

Here's the problem with that line of thinking: the MDC is a state organization, and most of the population lives in KC/STL/Jeff City/COMO/Springfield. There aren't a lot of conservation areas or other MDC benefits in those areas, compared to your average rural area (for completely obvious and unavoidable reasons.) Still it's never bad to build up a bit of goodwill with the majority of the people in your state if you want to remain viable. And let's be honest, there's no real harm done.

A few less trout in Bennett Springs. Who on earth cares?

[Fly_Guy]

More bang for the buck?

Yep. I imagine it pays for itself when people buy a trout stamp who would not otherwise. Or if not, it's at least a better use of tax dollars than 75% of the other things our states seem to blow money on.

[Phil Lilley]

Was referring more to adding fishing possibilities in areas where there's more people - urban.

[fishinwrench]

Wonder why big city folk don't worry about the things rural kids might miss out on ?

[Phil Lilley]

Who says they do - or don't?

What do they miss out on?

[Al Agnew]

Hey, any fishing is better than no fishing, and perhaps introducing urbanites to trout fishing, as completely artificial as it is (but really hardly any more artificial than the trout parks) will mean more angler advocates down the road.

And a lot depends upon where you live. I live far enough into the Ozarks (and part time in Montana) that there's no way I'd drive to an urban winter trout pond. I don't fish the trout parks, either. But that's because I have options I consider better that are as close or closer to home, and I have had a lot of experience fishing for truly wild trout or the somewhat wild trout of nearly wild places like the Eleven Point, Current, and North Fork. If I lived in the city and needed my usual fishing fix, I'd probably fish the trout ponds at least a time or two each year.

Of course, I'm more fortunate than most. Spent the day today floating the Yellowstone and catching quite a few truly wild rainbows, browns, and a cutthroat on dry flies (November in Montana and it was 60 degrees today!)

[Fly_Guy]

Exactly - it's better than nothing. In a perfect world, every child would get the river-run-through-it experience, but if nothing else they can get the basics and a love for it this way. IMO parents play a critical role in whether a child loves the outdoors. In rural communities, this is relatively easy to achieve, but if we want to develop a new generation of (voting) outdoorsmen and women who see the value in things like conservation funding, get em fishing early, and target the cities.

On be of my favorite experiences growing up was catching a trout at Shawnee Mission Lake with my dad. I had never seen one before, and for a kid, that is seriously cool!

And Phil - I suppose we could say more bang for the buck as well as buck for the bang? Either way, I see it as a win.

There are several things that rural kids miss out on compared to urban kids, but hardly any of them are worth anything. having been a child in both settings, give me the country any day!

[fishinwrench]

Who says they do - or don't?

What do they miss out on?

Plenty. They miss out on well funded quality schools. Athletic coaches that arent just english teachers wanting more hours. Shorter, more reasonable bus rides.

The ability to make a friend whose dad wasn't once in a relationship with your Aunt...or some similar disfunctional crap like that.

I could go on.....

You ever hear/or read about inner-city folks initiating anything to "share what they have" with rural kids in order to draw them to the city? Pimp their resources? I haven't, so I assume they don't.

Maybe I'm wrong, Phil. Wouldn't be a first.

So touche, ya got me.

Hell, why not turn a bunch of quail, pheasant, turkey, and elk loose in the city parks and start handing out shotguns and rifles ?

Give those poor unfortunates something to shoot at besides each other!

[laker67]

Well I can see that I am clearly outnumbered on this issue, and I would like to thank you all who came to my side of the fence. Some one mentioned that this program is probably paid for by the increase sales of permits. MY question, is a trout stamp required to fish, not keep, but fish for these trout during c and r season? If only a missouri fish permit is required, then most kids would be age exempt and not require that permit. What are the reqirements for out of staters who border and live so close to our urban fisheries? I am sure they take advantage.

[ozark trout fisher]

Well I can see that I am clearly outnumbered on this issue, and I would like to thank you all who came to my side of the fence. Some one mentioned that this program is probably paid for by the increase sales of permits. MY question, is a trout stamp required to fish, not keep, but fish for these trout during c and r season? If only a missouri fish permit is required, then most kids would be age exempt and not require that permit. What are the reqirements for out of staters who border and live so close to our urban fisheries? I am sure they take advantage.

To get right to the point, I question if money has much to do with your actual reasoning here. This is a drop in the bucket, in terms of funding. Nearly irrelevent when you consider the money being spent to stock up Taney/Trout Parks, etc. I think the real reason people object to it is because they don't view it as "real trout fishing" and "what benefit do I get out of it?" Guess what, by nature, the MDC is going to mostly cater to rural folks. So there's nothing to complain about. Things like stocking a few urban ponds with 10" trout is a way of saying, "hey, we do something for you guys too, so you should actually care about our existence." LIke it or not, it's a state agency, and most of the population in our state is in urban areas. It's a must that they do something to cater to people living in cities. No way around that.