I thought Mr. Arway was an excellent guest and laid out some great points. I really like how he talked about how this is already proven to work in Montana and even in Pennsylvania in certain instances. Along with that, I was not aware that other countries have even done these type of studies. Its great that Tom had him on, the Orvis podcast is one of the top rated fishing podcasts out there.
But, and I hate to be the Debbie downer, what Mr. Arway and a lot of anglers don't realize is stocking in marginal streams is bad too. Certainly not as bad as dumping a bucket of stocked trout in a Class A, but still bad.
Most Class A streams are connected to a marginal trout stream that gets stocked. So, in essence, these stocked trout eventually go up into the Class A streams and harm the wild trout. His argument that they should stock more in marginal streams (meaning the trout they would have stocked in Class A) is "well intentioned" and he is saying it from a good place, but still does not solve the issue of stocked trout migrating up into Class A streams and either eating the wild trout, or displacing them from their natural lies and prime feeding habitat.
The solution that nobody wants to admit is there should not be any stocking at all. Let wild trout thrive. Mr. Arway made the point in the podcast that when he was a kid there was not as much good trout water that there is now. So, if Pennsylvania has more cold, clean water than ever before, then why not get rid of stocking completely? Why not make all streams catch and release, single barbless hooks? I know the Euro dorks who insist on using multiple fly rigs would have a Gen Z type panic attack, but at some point they need to learn that you can catch a trout with a single fly. Spin anglers don't have to resort to tossing out multiple minnows or multiple pieces of power bait. But for some reason the fly fishing industry has switched to this unethical (my opinion) method of fishing with 2 and 3 fly rigs. Yet none of them want to admit how much foul hooking can harm a trout. None of them want to admit they can't read a hatch chart and just pick a fly that would works. They can't develop those skills so they basically toss out a 4mm bead on a size 20 hook and call it some fancy name, combined with a mop fly that to them "yeah, that totally doesn't look like powerbait that the guy with the spinning rod is using".
Pine Creek is stocked every year. Do you know how many wild trout streams are connected to Pine Creek? Same thing with Kettle Creek, the stocking truck dumps thousands of trout into it every year. And on and on throughout the state. Why can't we just learn to let the trout reproduce on their own and just practice ethical catch and release?
I say shut down the expensive hatcheries completely and use those funds to help build access, foster relationships with landowners and get more easements, and use the rest of the funds to help rehabilitate the streams that need more canopy, riparian buffers, pollution reduction, etc. Stocking is a complete waste of money and should be eliminated.
Its like Tom Rosenbauer said - stocking trout is like welfare for fishermen.
