Troutbert,
Not so. The Donegal was a special case that didn't just involve stocking of adult trout; it involved what I believed to be overstocking (the key point) of adult trout, especially in a C&R situation, which I believed was reflected in the depressed forage fish population as seen in a fish population survey and, by extension, probable depression of the YOY wild trout population. The forage fish population was not depressed in the upstream stocked section, which was contiguous with the C&R area and was managed under general statewide regulations. The overstocking problem in the C&R area was quickly resolved by all interested parties, as all favored an attempt to improve the forage fish population as well as possibly the abundance of wild trout fingerlings. This all took place about a decade ago or more and was not precipitated by any "activism" to stop stocking over wild trout. It was a practical route initiated by the AFM in an attempt to resolve an apparent problem.
The improved population of wild trout older than YOY found this year is not reflective of having just switched to fingerling stockings since that change was only initiated less than a year ago. We saw other apparent YOY improvements prior to the switch to fingerling stockings. Furthermore, the stream had a very low density of apparently wild trout even prior to that.
Note: In the last decade adult trout were being stocked at most at the PFBC's normal rate.