Money's worth?

[FarmerDave]

I kept 2 stocked brook trout on Saturday. A quick estimate is that they cost me about 100 bucks a pound, and that is just the money I spent in PA. I'd say the PAF&BC and PA in general got it's money's worth out of me.

Wait a second, I forgot I took the wife along when I bought my license, and she spent another 30 bucks in the gift shop. Make that about 120/lb. This isn't even considering the money I spent in Ohio.

When I fried them up, the wife sure liked them. I only ate about half of one and she ate the rest. Something about paying that much for fish didn't sit right with me. :-D Seriously though, she really likes trout., and they were fairly good. Better than I remember for stocked trout. but I did fry them perfectly. They were definitely stocked, but had decent color for stocked trout. I believe the stream was stocked a few weeks earlier. That might have had something to do with it, too.

If i want to get that price per pound down, it would mean fishing more, and keeping several more (stocked only), and probably fishing closer to home (darn gas prices).

Hey Jason, I was up in your neck of the woods again. Well, at least the same county.

 

[pete41]

I feel your pain,seriously.
I don't have to buy a license because of my advanced age but did buy a $1500 fishing kayak so I could keep us in fresh fish.Since the first of the year due to various reasons that has amounted to one flounder.
Its fun,anyway-would be but I threw my back out lifting the kayay incorrectly Sunday morning.

 

[Maurice]

Ahhhh..Hmmmmm.....You only paid $8.00 for the trout stamp just like everybody else. Thats all the money that went to raising and stocking those fish. So it was more like $8.00/lb considering .5 lbs/fish. (thats the average for a stocked 11" trout).

The other 50 some bucks went to the privilidge of fishing in our beloved state, law enforcement (so the trout will still be there on opening day),wild trout, warm water fish, reptile & amphibian management, etc. Look at what you have done for the bog turtle....

I know you are being fecitious Dave but it is still the best deal going. How many times can you take your wife out for a trout dinner for less than $60. Not many....you can go catch as many as you want within the regulations here.

What about the guys that took time away from their day or work, or yard work, or house work to help stock them? DOn't you owe them something?

You loved puttin yer boots back in the Tionesta Creek drainage and you know it.

 

[tomgamber]

I didn't pay anything because I let all my trout go...but I paid 60 in gas and 40 something for my license just because I like fishing...on the other hand, while I was gone, my wife took the 2 boys to the movies and spent almost 30 bucks for the movie and about the same for dinner. They're done..I have 270-some days left...I think I got the better deal.

 

[FarmerDave]

Maurice, give me a break. You aren't a bean counter, are you?

Lets say you paid 3.40 for a gallon of gas (rounding up that stupid .9 cents on the end of every gallon). Well, about 18 cents of that goes to federal taxes, and another 35 to state taxes (give or take.) Lets round it off to 50 cents in taxes. (I'm only guessing, so no need to correct those numbers) When you buy gas, do you say you only paid 2.90? That is actually all you paid for the actual product. Tell that to your credit card company.

Secondly, if it weren't for trout, I gaurantee that I wouldn't be buying a PA license, or fishing in PA, or buying gas in PA, or buying food in PA, and my wife wouldn't have spent money on that junk in PA, and I wouldn't be taking her to an Inn in May in PA, where in addition to the lodging and food, she wouldn't be spending more money on junk in PA and so on. It is what I paid and will be paying and what Pa did and will receive in revenue because of trout. Where the money goes is irrelvant to my checkbook. The money was spent in PA because of trout.

Like I said in the original "I'd say the PAF&BC and PA in general got it's money's worth out of me."

Ilso, I was figuring .75lb per fish only to not appear to be inflating my numbers. i didn't weigh them. Using .5lb per fish, the price jumps up to about $180/lb.

I'm not complaining. The point is the money was spent to have the opportunity to catch trout. It would be silly to try to justify keeping fish to get your money's worth. I plan to get my moneys worth in entertainment value. I kept a couple because the wife loves fresh trout, and I'll admit I liked it, too.

I boycotted PA fishing all together last year when the PF&BC decided to resume stocking some Class A streams. Those were streams I never even fish. That is how strongly I feel aout stocking over the wild populations. The PF&BC needs to pay more attention to people who actually increase PA revenue, and less to the average freezer filler who spends very little and just wants more rubber fish.

By the way, I got the Erie stamp too, although i doubt I will use it.

 

[jolie]

"..Hey Jason, I was up in your neck of the woods again. Well, at least the same county.:

Hello Dave! Yes, it was a nice day after all in kinzua country.

First we could have a mighty big thread about whether the price is worth it, fisherie had one a little whiles back- it went 4 pages...

Second, fish price per pound is something I've thought of, I considered it because I wanted to figure out if the NY license fee makes fishing too expensive. Year to date, exempting gas I've at 5.50$/a pound. (partially 'cause there's plenty of good fishing right in or near town- and If I'm a bonehead and drive a zillion miles, I'd rather not think of all that money I'm wasting). Obviously not all kept (of course)...
I use the weight/length tables for my calculations -- I figure differences will average out in the end.

When Its all said and done- it is I 'spose still a matter of enjoyment and interest level, still.

So I have to respectively disagree with maurice.
bog tuttles, enforcing fishing rules, and stocking would be what the commison DOES with the money... but days spent pleasantly casting flies for drifting trout would be WHY you spent it...


One of the tough things about the commission has to be the great diversity in fishermen. YOu've got the 'bait casual local' crowd, the kids, and the addicts. I saw on first day, kids as young as perhaps 3 or 4.

And a dedicated fly fishermen such as most of you have almost nothing in common to the very casual power bait crowd (that usually sets up a lawn chair on a stocked lake);; that is , except that you both fish for trout.

They want quantity, incredible fish density, and absolute guillability. you want an experience. But THEY probably outnumber you, and they have the power of all that money. Also fishing is likely too lose many to the distractions of life, and as the youngsters don't take up the hobby. The fish commission has probably got to take a long hard look at what it takes to keep the casual crowd, willing to invest...

well enough for now, but although the fish commision is trying to build quality fisheries, there are forces against us many of them economic IMHO.

Dave, drop me a line when you have any firm plans to come up here!
Jason

 

[Acristickid]

A nice day on the water with a hatch, friends etc.... priceless!

Joile- you might want to think in terms of us.

"But THEY probably outnumber you"

 

[jolie]

Joile- you might want to think in terms of us.

"But THEY probably outnumber you"....

I'm happy to feel included, yes, Thank you. one thing WE have in our side... We want a healthy self-reproducing population of trout; which is in short ecologically healthy.
Jason