Hatchery vs. Wild Trout.

**mcarl** · 05-18-2008, 10:18 PM

I tried posting this somewhere else and I don't think it went through b/c I was prompted with some type of warning that I had to log in or something. I'm new to this sort of stuff and it might have been b/c it was on another reply fron Aaron. Anyway here's someof my thoughts about wild vs stocked fish
1) hatchery fish are conditioned to pellets and eggs from the time they are fry. They know what an egg is. If I was fishing over stocked fish particularly rainbows, I would use that 1st. As they get conditioned to stream life they begin to change over to stream life forms. wild/holdovers see spawning eggs so they will hit them too. Hence eggs are a good choice for prospecting.
2) Truely wild fish tend to bolt long before you get a chance to get them in certain streams whereas holdovers and stockies tend to get very selective even with a little pressure in a short time. I also think it depends a lot on what waters your fishing and how much natural pressure is going on on top of what we put on them.
3) I think in some regards intro of stocked fish into wild/holdover populations tend to create competition so the "natives" have to become less wary temporarily. You see this on the Farmington a lot when they stock the TMA
4) Within the stream there are "trigger" fish that others respond to. They sometimes get other fish to begin to feed. They insight a feeding frenzy. I've seen this at Joe Humphreys house when he feeds his pet fish on Spring Creek. I don't what to give too much more info about him, where he lives, etc out of respect b/c he's been my mentor and friend for years and don't want to jeapordize that. We've all seen where hatches take place but the fish aren't on it yet. Well, the "leaders" haven't tuned into it yet nor have the general population. Again it comes back to conditioning. An example is Spring Creek. There are trillions of cress bugs and fish feed on them all the time ( conditioning ). All of a sudden a sulphur hatch arrives. The first day or so you can still catch fish on cress bugs during the hatch. You fish it a day or two later and start fishing cress bugs but a sulphur hatch takes place...all of a sudden you stop taking fish on the cress bug b/c they have turnedto the sulphur b/c they became conditioned to that. Joe references this in his books. I'm not just reciting what he said. This comes from personal experience as well
5) almost all of it comes down to inherent genetics and conditioning--are they tuely wild with no previous human contact? Are there a lot of natural predators? Have wilds been subjected to stockies? Are holdovers now in competition with stocked fish? So many theories and possibilities. One thing is for sure they are strange and hard to figure out sometimes

**sholgate** · 05-18-2008, 10:38 PM

I never would have guessed this question would be given so much conversation. But I think the thing I got out of this the most is that I need to try the same techniques in more different streams. There are so many factors...

Natural predation
Actually species
Wild or Hatchery
Fishing pressure

I just want to continue to be a more skilled fly fisher. Thanks for the response!

**AaronJasper** · 05-19-2008, 06:55 AM

I agree that in the Farmington stocking trout makes the larger holdovers more vulnerable to anglers. They move out of their usual spot and pick spots (usually very shallow water) to feed. This was evidenced during the Hendrickson hatch this spring.

alanb_ct · 05-19-2008, 11:39 AM

Fish, in general, seem susceptible to competitive urges. How many times have we fished a location and were certain it was devoid of fish until catching the first one? In small streams fishing bait, my Dad and I always uses to make this comment. In fact, upon catching the first one, it's probably good to let it swim around a bit. Also, how often do we see another fish swimming alongside the fish on our line?

Fish have to be competitive - their survival depends on it!

**frogge** · 05-27-2008, 09:04 AM

Hey,
Interesting disscussion. One thing I would add is that in many rivers the mortality of stocked fish is greater than 90%. Thus, holdovers are rare and the fish have both a limited life span and time to learn anything. In NYS this has prompted the DEC to start stocking 2yr old trout so that the sports have a chance to catch somewhat larger fish. I think the logical next step would be to tag selected fish and give prizes to the sports that catch them. I get the impression that most people on this board dont' fish the Battenkill. It represents an interesting test bed. Vermont does not stock and Ny does. I haven't fished the VT section, but can attest that the Browns in the NYS Trophy section are plenty wary.The other factor that has not been mentioned is that the diet of larger fish especially browns is likely different than the smaller fish. I've read that larger browns are mainly nocturnal feeders and eat mainly larger meals such as fish, crayfish, and larger bugs. These fish may never fall victim to the number 22 midge nymph. Toodles,Frogge.