Embarrassing
 

Went out this morning for catch and release at 2 of my favorite spots. Fished for 90 min and managed 13 bows. Fish and game should be ashamed of the quality of these fish! 9 of my fish were between 7-8.5 inches and the others barely reached 9. What a disappointment. Anyone else having the same problem?

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The fish were raised during a year where the state, country and most parts of the world were literally shut down due to COVID. C'mon man... You're complaining about stocked trout. Be happy they were able to even raise and stock fish this year.

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^^^agreed....I'm just happy I can fish fer other species now😜

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Amen to that. Kudos for F&G for getting it done!

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8 inches!? 1 inch shorter than normal!? it's about time! now they can finally fit in my george foreman grill :D yes!

lol jk, but well said jigman ^^^ ! :)

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I've been catching them, in large numbers, as by-catch in lakes that are stocked, but not closed to fishing and I actually was saying the OPPOSITE... the trout we've been catching are gorgeous compared to past years... vibrant colors, fuller fins, and good size! i kind of wish i took a few pics of them, but i was too annoyed that they kept interfering with what i was actually fishing for hahaha

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All the money that the state gathers from licencing and such should go towards better quality fish. To me it's more enjoyable catching a couple dozen crappie in that size range. I just expected way better

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The bigger fish don’t need to eat right away as they have fat reserves. Give it another couple of days and I bet the bigger ones will show up. Last year I caught over 30 in 1 hole and at first it was all little ones once I weeded through them the size improved.

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Then go crappie fishing.

License revenues arent just for trout. Consider the multitude of other species the state raises and stocks statewide. Like some of the crappie you'd rather catch...

I buy the trout stamp and dont trout fish. I consider it my annual donation to the states stocking program.

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Fished 3 spots today , 3 different rivers . Had well over 50 fish today .
All were better quality than normal stocked fish .

Raised trout are currently 7.50 a pound live weight .
No sense in crying after you caught 2 trout you got your money’s worth .


Want them to raise bigger fish feeding them another year isn’t going to happen on a measly 10.50 stamp






.

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Caught 6 gorgeous 9-11 inch trout in 2 hours today. The fish look amazing, much better than the past few years. If you don’t like em you can always fish for something else! :confused:

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Wow, such angry responses. Look I'm just giving my opinion here. We are all entitled to that, or are we in these days? I love fishing for all species. I guess if my opinions don't align with most others than this is what I get. Remember people its just opinions RELAX

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It's not anger fueled bud. Just consider the past 12 to 13 months. The State fisheries folks on the sweetwater side did a helluva job managing thru an unprecedented crisis. That's all we're saying. Enjoy it for what it's worth.

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your opinion is accepted! the quality of stocked trout is still a valid concern. but please do accept our disagreements as well :D Regardless, it's important we stay vocal about these things in case there is a downward trend of quality from f&w :)

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Caught 2 yesterday. One 9"er and one @2.9lbs. Both nice fish.

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I've been checking out the live camera of Duke's Farm Eagle Nest. The eaglets (the size of chickens now) have been feasting on birds, eels, suckers and bass.
No stocked trout yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj37Uc_uKj8

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they did eat a nice, big, full finned, brightly colored, definitely-not-a-freshly-stocked rainbow the other day though!

also i had a chuckle when they ate a whole wing from a canada goose too

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They had a headless shad bout a week ago!!

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I missed that trout,....they devour it so fast. I saw them eat some gizzard shad, too.

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Was out this morning and caught a load, lost count . The fish were brightly colored and fought well . I actually thought they looked better than the rainbows of the last few years.

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Just got back from a locally stocked river..fished for about an hour...a lot of action. The fish were in the normal trout stocking range of about 10 inches. 1 was 12 inches. Also caught a 1 inch sunny...brings down my size average for the day. Color was nice and they gave a nice fight (not including the sunny...that was not a nice fight...thought it was a leaf). TD