Brown trout

[Str8Shot]

Bob Stay away from Reservation lake ... No Browns in there

[couesmagnet]

Arizona g and f hasn't stocked brown trout for many years. The reservation has plans to stop stocking browns in the near future in favor of the apache trout. The browns that are left in az will be extinct someday due to people keeping them. Without the stocking of browns i see no reason to keep them cause they already have enough to contend with against other species being stocked regularly. They might be more aggressive but the species deserves a chance to stay in az against the odds that are placed on them now. I fish for browns almost exclusively and catch and release every trout i catch regardless of the species. Without browns fishing in az would be boring. At a pretty young age i realized that any fish kept is one fish to many in arizona, unless you want to keep catching dinky substandard size fish for the rest of your lives. I never heard a fisherman say that darn 20 inch brown needs to go, after having his pole go super bendo for a couple minutes. I've payed others before to release browns from their stringer that were of breeding age. Doesn't everyone go fishing for a chance of a whopper hammering their lure? If you keep any species of trout from az waters, you kinda just shot your fantasy in the foot by keeping any fish. Give the fish a chance to grow for a chance of that fantasy strike of a big fish. Unless your starving to death throw them back for another day. There's nothing more depressing to me than to see a guy with a stringer full of trout headed for the fish fry. Why not spend a couple extra dollars on food for the trip to further why your there fishing in the first place. It's almost like the guy who keeps fish here in az wants a bunch of links for his kids in the future. Az has become a put and take state and with so few streams and lakes here any fish is a precious resource to be protected for another days excitement and hopefully a couple inches bigger the next time caught. I'll spend 20 minutes trying to revive a trout of any species i've caught. For those who keep trout out of streams here i beg you to reconsider keeping them, and maybe buy a store fish previous to the trip instead of setting back the joy of maybe catching a fish that actually has a chance of bending your pole more than s half inch. In my opinion there's nothing better than the first couple seconds of setting the hook in a beast, and if we ever loose the beast here i'm done fishing. Long live the dink is what most people are asking for by keeping any trout here. I can't even imagine fishing az without the chance of a wooly mammoth sized brown on the end of my pole. If they are not being stocked anymore give them a chance to coexist, for the sake of your pole bending more than a half inch. How does this not make sense to so many!!!!

[trphyhntr]

lol so hard @ AZGFD. just lol. why do they hate us?

[rossislider]

Go to 2:08 on the video.

 

[couesmagnet]

Thanks rossislider for the perfect example of how most people think here in az when it comes to trout. I've never fly fished before, but would like to try someday. Those 3 guys on the video are a perfect example of how most think here in az. Couldn't have said it better myself. I will say i've never seen a fly fisherman keep a trout here in az. Fly fisherman seem the have the concept of catch and release down, now we need to reach out to the rest on the concept of catch and release. Long live the dink for the rest until common sense kicks in. Nothing better than a giant hammering my spinner. I quit using bait long ago for the sheer reason of the mortality rate on the fish i caught by using bait. I would almost rather catch no fish for the day than kill one by using bait. It's about the future for the rest of the fisherman out there and the big strike. Sharing a resource instead of ending the resource. Conservations a tough one to swallow.

[Str8Shot]

Magnet

 

If you want any kind of size in a fish hatchery , fish must be harvested ... Fish size is influenced by the number of fish within a certain carrying capacity of the habitat , just as much as the food and nutrients in the water ... If you take two identical Reservoirs, and you put a 100,000 fish in one and 10,000 fish in the other... The reservoir with 10,000 fish is always going to have more Big fish and not just because less competition for food. I practice catch and release at about 80 - 90% but never have issue with another person doing as they choose as long as it is legal. To say that by people keeping caught fish all you will see is dinks is as inaccurate as saying that there will no longer be any big bulls or bucks because a hunter harvested the Big guy. In the small amount of streams and rivers that still hold browns that breed naturally , they are the lions in the eco system and will continue to grow ... Browns and Brook trout were introduced to their current habitats in the early 1900's and have never been a species regularly Stocked by the G&F ... They still exist because they still breed naturally in the habitats they were first introduced, unlike most Arizona Trout dumped in Reservoirs.

[CouesPursuit]

Lees Ferry, although a totally different animal than your examples, is a perfect case of a fishery that needs every legal fish (<14") harvested if anglers ever want chances at the monsters again.

[Str8Shot]

Lees Ferry, although a totally different animal than your examples, is a perfect case of a fishery that needs every legal fish (<14") harvested if anglers ever want chances at the monsters again.

Yeah , The quality waters up at Lees is not what it once was... .You will catch a lot of fish but not many the sizes they once were ... Every body of water be it a stream, river, lake, reservoir, or home aquarium has a certain carrying capacity at which fish can flourish and reach large sizes ... most people do not understand this , they think More of something means more chance at bigger, which is not the case.

[couesmagnet]

Str8 go to tonto creek or oak creek for proof of what i'm saying about az waters. People keep everything they catch there and there isn't a fish in tonto that goes over 14 inches unless it was stocked yesterday. If you can catch a fish over 16 inches that wasn't stocked yesterday i'll eat my words and then some. If you keep all the fish how do they get bigger for another day. Maybe in a super controlled hatchery pond your right, but in the real world here in our streams your example doesn't float. this is why you can go to any stream in any state that has private waters in it for any stretch of distance and that private will have giants swimming anywhere and everywhere. You can literally go to the line of private on that stream and enter the private stretch where they keep no fish and the diff is amazing. Then exit the private a the big fish are gone. Streams aren't a hatchery and thus can't be compared in the real world. Please explain why the diff is so great between the private stretch where none are kept and the public section filled with dinks then. It's the same stream, and the private in many cases is only a couple hundred yards long. Why the big diff if what you say is true??

[couesmagnet]

One of the best example of this is the frying pan in colorado. I've seen many more examples of this all over the place. Public section filled with dinks, a couple feet further into the private where none are kept, tons of monsters. Please explain this!!! Please explain why tonto has no big fish anymore. According to your concept there should be monsters in tonto cause everyone is keeping the little ones..

[Str8Shot]

Coesmagnet , are you from Arizona ?

 

Arizona is a different breed than most states when it comes to Hunting and Fishing Both... Our Creeks and Rivers have smaller and less pooling and less carrying capacity than many other states. and even in most those other states in similar waters 14 - 16 inch trout are monsters. G&F stock those areas because they know there is going to be a harvest by anglers ... Browns and Brook trout have never been a regular part of the stocking program. EVERY BODY OF WATER HAS A CARRYING CAPACITY THAT DIRECTLY AFFECTS SIZE HEALTH AND QUALITY OF FISH !

[Analogkid1014]

It is a shame to see people keep the browns. They are so fun to catch because how aggressive they are. I will usually keep a few few a year when we ice fish to smoke for dinner but never a brown. I hate the big brown tournament the WMAT does because they have to keep the fish and bring it in. a few more years of that tournament and you can kiss your shot at a 10lb plus pound brown goodbye for the most part. Arizona isnt close to other states and fisheries as far as the quality of fish. would like to see pics of your biggest az brown and rainbow that wasnt stocked lol

[Str8Shot]

Analog ...Talking Arizona only, My biggest brown is on my wall and it was 7 1/2 lbs 24 1/2 inches and Kept because when and where I caught G&F was asking if any Browns were caught to give them the innards so they could try and figure out what was happening to the population in the reservoir that is fed by the little Colorado ( I was 12 )... Since then I have released several Dozen browns between 16 - 22 inches over my years fishing and kept a handful from reservation lakes to grill ... My sister geared by me on her first time fishing for browns caught a 25 inch 6lb brown a few years back .. made the guys she was with jealous...

[couesmagnet]

Str8 i am from arizona and born and raised!! Carrying capacity is a moot argument when every fish is being kept out of our waters. Again in a perfect world, maybe a hatchery where exact ratios of small to large fish are culled you might have a point, but i've yet to see that in the real world. In az in some streams if you wait 2 weeks after a stocking there might not even be a fish in the pool to catch irregardless of size and this is exactly what i was saying earlier. I wish we could argue about carrying capacity but what's the point when our streams are strip mined for anything with a pulse. Again that's my point about catch and release here in az especially for trout. Unfortunately we have almost no catch and release here in az, and thus on average we have some of the worst fishing for trout of all states. Theres a reason why people pay extra to fish the rare waters here that have restrictions, most on private. Your argument simply holds not one drop of water with regards to your previous post. if we had quality waters on tonto or oak creek i can assure you not only would there be nice fish in those sections, they would also be plentiful. Carrying capacity is an argument reserved for fish actually existing 2 weeks after a stocking, and my whole point about az waters. If you want big fish or at least fish over 12 inches you must catch and release for that to happen. Quit using labs to compare to the real world where a fish doesn't have a chance to get big cause they get kept on the spot.

[Str8Shot]

So because you are not catching them they are not there ? They must have all been yanked out by those dang weekend warriors !!!! Cause the fish surely do not navigate the waterway up stream and down stream to areas beyond the hole they were dumped in... I guess do not share your sentiment because I tend to get away from the people and Dump holes of Stockers...

 

I am not using Labs .. I am using real world , but go ahead and blame your lack of catching or not catching one over 14 inches on your theory .. Not going to try and change your mind .. Spinners are great but there are much better artificial baits to use in streams and creeks and one does not need a fly rod to fish a fly effectively on those small streams.

 

If people want to stick to crowded stocking spots and catch those hatchery fish and take home , I have no issue with it... Have not fished Oak creek enough to speak to that , but plenty of places to hike on Tonto that will produce some decent fish and enough so that if I am staying overnight I will keep one for the Fire.