Why do some fisheries

Up and down the country I often notice an enormous difference in the quality of stocked trout. On some waters they are top class, fully finned and in perfect condition.

In other waters they are nasty excuses for trout with only a stump for a tail amongst other obvious deformities.

And then there are those fish whose fins are obviously deliberately cut or clipped for some reason.

Can I ask all stock fish suppliers to stop this hideous practice forthwith!! It's not bloody necessary!

With modern fish farming practices there is no reason whatsoever to supply nasty looking or deformed fish to fishery owners. Not only that, but fishery owners should also reject the rubbish.

I suspect Ron it comes down to price or even availability.
As with all walks of life and businesses there will be fish farms that overstock their ponds, take little care of the fish and sell cheap to fishery managers that will buy cheep regardless of the condition of the fish.
Or a fishery needs to restock but because their regular supplier cant come up with the goods they go to somebody who can.

The question should be why are these fish farms allowed to exsist. If they were breeders of any other species they would not be allowed to keep them in conditions that were unhealthy for the animal.

And i think i said it there they are fish and not animals.

Bryan, can you remember when Stocks res first opened to the public?
First few years were good but later the quality became very poor. This was due to the management putting bad trout in, the water board sacked them.

Another aspect of waters where the quality of the fish becomes poor, is the over-preponderance of catch and release.

Bad handling, especially in winter.

The entry about Stocks, is he stocked bad fish because he sold the good ones to the public and restaraunts.

Ron you've been around a fair amount of time, you've caught a fish or two of many different species.

I don't understand why you are fishing for stocked Rainbow Trout which, let's face it, are as unnatural as Ratfish.

Surely wild Brownies is the way to go?

It would be nice to be able to fish for wild brownies Ric. Such fishing is not always accessable, not only to me but to thousands of others. I'll not go into the reasons for this now, as they are all too obvious.

I have fished for stocked rainbows, mainly in still water, for nearly 40 years I guess. And I have enjoyed a lot of it, not only in UK but in other parts of the world.

The stocking of rainbow trout in England has opened up many thousands of acres of water supply reservoirs that would have been otherwise denied to anglers completely. Water companies do not allow coarse fishing on their waters for a variety of reasons.

The rainbow trout, stocked into such waters does very little harm. They generally do not breed and they don't live very long either. Many trout reservoirs have natural stocks of large coarse fish that would make your eyes water. I have seen them in places like Rutland.

Rainbow trout provide to the fly fisher what the stocked and reared pheasant provides to the shooter.

There is also something else. What attracts myself and others to the capture of rainbow trout is the species itself. Nothing in British waters fights like a good conditioned rainbow, with the possible exception of salmon and seatrout, which again are not available to most anglers.

It can be argued that trout farms are responsible for a good deal of pollution. Some are. Some are not. It depends on how they are run. 75% of trout farm production goes goes to the supermarket by the way.

My attutude to carp is simple. Muddy puddles and natural waters which are stripped of indigenous fish for the gross stocking of carp are an anathema to me; and to lots of other anglers too.

I have nothing against big carp waters where invariably the number of fish stocked is small. Such waters, especially many gravel pits, also contain superb roach, tench and bream.

One other point that I think is valid.

If the stocking of rainbow trout were stopped now, on all waters where they are stocked, in 5 or 6 years time there would be virtually zero rainbow trout anywhere in England.

The only exception being the Derbyshire Wye.

This would certainly not be the case with carp.

ron,sorry i have only just caught up with this debate,only just spotted it mate!!must have painted on eye's!lol.
i think that stocking of poor quality fish often boils down to a fisherys greed/ignorance.
as you rightly state further back in thread a lot of trout farms rear fish for super-markets,with only a small percentage actually rearing for sport fisheries,and as your average supermarket punter is not that bothered about fin quality ect,there is no onus on these farms to produce fish that are astheticaly pleasing as well as just nice to eat.
the problem with this is a lot of fisherys are lured by the price of these fish away from better quality fish that a fish farmer who rears for sport fisherys is producing. the difrence in price can be quite staggering I.E 1.50 per pound at fish farm producing for supermarkets, 2.50 per pound at fish farm producing for fisherys.
and as the average fishery can only charge a certain price for fishing on his lakes due mainly to amount of fisherys about these days,
{if he outprices his competetors then anglers just go to lake down road} then the option of buying fish from a cheeper source can and does seem attrective to a lot of fishery owners.

P.S made the mistake of purchasing some fish at lower price from a fish farm in scotland when my lakes first opened,NEVER AGAIN!!no tails deformed pecs and after 3 months in lake,any fish that anglers had not taken home had to be remaved because they where developing genetic deformalitys,
i.e. they developed a kink in back and were un-able to submerge!
no, i now pay that little bit extra and only use a supplyer i have 100% confidence in. which took a lot of finding i can tell you!!!
have you noticed how many fish farms there are out there?

Thanks for your comments Billy.

There is also an enormous difference in the price of day tickets between the north and the south of England!

The best conditioned trout in my area are to be found in Thrybergh reservoir which is just up the road for where I live.

There they stock every month with 8 to 12 inch fish which grow out to double figures on occasions. 6 pounders are reasonably common and what beautiful fish they are too. Thrybergh is about 40 acres, is crystal clear and very rich indeed. The buzzer hatches in summer are something to see. The prices would amaze you.

?12-00 a day for 4 fish plus catch and release although that might increase next season. You can take out a season ticket for ?212 which will give you 100 visits!!!

The water is owned by Rotherham MBC by the way.

However it is NOT an easy water. Many good anglers occasionally blank here. Due to it's location, the prevailing wind and high banks, you have to be a good caster to catch fish regularly. The best spots nearly always have the westerly wind coming from across your right shoulder. Keck handers do very well!!

might have to give it a go Ron, i'm a keck handed yorkshire man me-self !!lol

and as u say yourself these fish are bought at 8-12" and grow on on a very rich diet.
at 8-12" these fish will be quite cheep,especialy when bought in bulk and pre-ordered 12 months in advance
not many smaller fisherys cane aford to do this,and not many small waters are rich enough to sustain and grow on a healthy head of fish,so we have to buy larger ,more expensive fish on a regular basis,which again effects your turn-over.
also if i were to start stocking 8-12" fish all my anglers would bugger of to other fisherys in area.
sad really but the vast majority of fly fisherman seam to be more worried now-adays about quantity of fish and size of fish rather than fish quality and quality of day's fishing.
but as a fishery owner who needs fishery to be sucssesfull even though i dont agree with point i just made i have to give anglers what they want or loose trade to other fisherys.

Personally Billy and I have caught some big trout in my life - including pellet fed jobs, I would rather catch a overwintered grown-on trout of 3 lbs than a pellet fed monster any day.

The fighting power of such fish often takes your breath away. And they taste bloody good as well.

Roll on March 25th - Thrybergh opening day.

could not agree more Ron! cant beat an overwintered rainbow from a res for taste or stamina, the point i was trying to make is there's not many trout anglers out there now with same views as you and i, most just want that ''double'' or a full bag of trout to stick in freezer with the rest of fish in there.

sorry to compleatly change subject Ron, but have you tryed Carsington water at matlock yet?

It's on my list of new waters to try next year Billy.

I believe there are some good browns in it.

It's the same old story with any type of angling.

When new to the sport, the angler wants to catch as many fish as possible. Later in his angling career he want to catch as big a fish as possible.

The after a few years the angler will "grow up" and want to catch the most difficult fish, irrespective of size.

And with trout fishing that also means he will eventually persue quality, not quantity.

Ron,Carsington is my local water ,and an exelent brownie res,80% of stock is brownies,rainbows are only added at end of season to pick up sport when brownie close season comes into effect.
lots of exellent overwintered browns to 5lbs with average size around 2lbs. all methods work well,but my favorite is deep fished tubes and fry patterns for the larger browns,most locals fish smaller patterns igher up in water for smaller fish, but i prefer to get down below 30ft for older wiser AND larger fish. because most of locals are set in there ways and wont fish tubes there is a lot of untaped potential down ther just waiting to be explored!CAT lost a fish last year that scared us both to death!it was unstoppable.

bailiff states that only 45% of browns stocked are actually caught,and its been that way since it opened, must be ten years ago now......................

p.s. if you have a fish finder that would be a bonus,LOTS OF underwater feature and depths to 150ft! sunken island just of dam wall hotspot BUT ITS 40FT DOWN,not divuljing exact location ,but well worth finding, me and cat did and it payed of bigtime!!