What I'm Hearing On The Park

[BilletHead]

32 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

In my world, a trout caught in a farm pond does not equal one caught in a spring Creek 😉

     In my world a stocked rainbow does not equal a wild native rainbow, cutthroat, or greyling caught in their respective native habitat. 

   Like I said some of these urban fisherman don't get out very far from home, just like you Glen. You just happen to be close to a spring Creek. 

[FishnDave]

2 hours ago, BilletHead said:

    some of these urban fisherman don't get out very far from home

I'm that guy.  Until you've tried it, you can't fathom the soul-leeching disappointment of fishing near StL.  It's a similar feeling to working for someone else... and just wanting each day to be your last, but retirement isn't in the cards just yet.  So you keep going.  But the fishing often just makes me wanna sell all my gear.  And I haven't done the Urban Trout thing for the past few years either.... ever since the one pond I enjoyed going to, of course they drained it for renovation and still isn't (as far as I know) ready.

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, BilletHead said:

just like you Glen. You just happen to be close to a spring Creek.

I USED TO BE.   They are busy converting it into a giant hatchery for the urbanites now, so I guess they win.....and I lose.   🤷‍♂️ 

[Terrierman]

In my world, I'm happy about other people being happy catching .... whatever they're fishing for and having a good time doing it.  Wherever they may be.  It doesn't always have to be a 500 pound tuna or a 3 pound smallie or a first trout at Bennett.  Have at world and enjoy what we have.

[ness]

I'm ok with urban, or in this case suburban, trout stocking programs.

Released, to the dismay of the guy down the bank from me, Shawnee Mission Park, Lenexa, KS.

Notes say 19.75 inches. Date unknown 'cause I didn't write it down. 

Non-native, of course, as this was clearly a Missouri trout. 🤪

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

I USED TO BE.   They are busy converting it into a giant hatchery for the urbanites now, so I guess they win.....and I lose.   🤷‍♂️ 

             Come on buddy,

  Pat and I were over there for two nights camping and fishing a couple weeks ago. Looking at the building area, you are still going to have the same amount of spring creek to fish as you always have and even though no fish from the down hatchery the fishing was good and size was great. I was actually kind of tickled that fish was coming from another place. Word was out some of the fish had orange flesh. Sure, enough the carcasses in the water of the bigger fish had orange flesh. The spring creek park hatchery fish were as always enjoying the guts.  Wherever MDC was buying fish they were feeding something other than what MDC feeds.  You will have more fish stocked into your spring creek than all the urban ponds that Bennett supplies fish to.  Face it is what it is. It's a park. 

[fishinwrench]

Fair enough 👍 

I never even went inside the park when we were there the first weekend of Oct.   Didn't even drive thru to look at it. 

I concentrated on the 100 yard stretch of the river right by our campsite, and did just fine.  We had foil baked trout and it was pretty darn good.   

I agree about the apparent change of food those fish are being fed. Interesting. 

[BilletHead]

4 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Fair enough 👍 

I never even went inside the park when we were there the first weekend of Oct.   Didn't even drive thru to look at it. 

I concentrated on the 100 yard stretch of the river right by our campsite, and did just fine.  We had foil baked trout and it was pretty darn good.   

I agree about the apparent change of food those fish are being fed. Interesting. 

You know that section well and weren't bumping into people! 

[tjm]

On 10/26/2025 at 4:56 PM, Gavin said:

Well it will look like a golf course when they are done. 

That would be a great improvement over the paved parking lot look that it has in my memory. 

[tjm]

3 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Fair enough 👍 

I never even went inside the park when we were there the first weekend of Oct.   Didn't even drive thru to look at it. 

I concentrated on the 100 yard stretch of the river right by our campsite, and did just fine.  We had foil baked trout and it was pretty darn good.   

I agree about the apparent change of food those fish are being fed. Interesting. 

If you did well, why do you think there is a problem? When I was there last spring, the work on the hatchery didn't seem to be having much effect on anything else. Of course at that time it didn't seem that much work was being done either. 

Scuds make trout meat turn pink/red/orange, but hatcheries and farms usually feed synthetic carotenoids, often canthaxanthin or astaxanthin. I'm not sure that such color would significantly change the taste of the fish. It certainly makes the meat more attractive and possibly has some health benefit for  humans if they eat enough trout.  So, this prompts a question, what is in the spring run that trout eat after stocking?  Is it an insect factory? loads of scuds ? do they continue to feed them pellets?