This brown trout is clearly wild—lovely, feisty, and enjoyable to catch—however it lives in a river the place it competes with native brook trout. Picture: Phil Monahan
Fly fishers have lengthy created a hierarchy of trout within the U.S., primarily based on nature. On the prime of the pyramid are native species, caught within the waters they’ve inhabited for millennia; subsequent are wild trout, born within the river by pure propagation; and on the backside are stockers, fished reared in hatchery and planted for anglers to catch. However over the previous 140 years, lots of these stocked populations have turn out to be wild, and plenty of of these wild populations compete with natives.
Writing in Sports activities Illustrated, Jasper Taback, discusses the problems raised by this dilemma, in addition to some doable options:
When brown trout had been launched to america within the late 1800s, the purpose was to offer extra sport-fishing alternatives. It labored – brown trout have unfold all through the nation, boosting leisure fishing alternatives alongside the way in which.
Sadly, their unfold, together with the stocking of rainbow trout in non-native waters, has contributed to the decline of our native trout populations. The harm has been performed – non-native trout are right here, and in a giant method. So now what?
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