Good Evening Gents,

Over several years the club I am a member of has stocked our river with Rainbow Trout. We are apporaching our AGM and a topic for discussion is whether to continue with this stocking strategy. There are two schools of thought in the club, some of the members approve as they like the sport catching Rainbows regularly gives them, others don't like stocking with non native fish species and worry that it damages existing fish populations. Does anyone have any infomation on whether stocking of Rainbows actually damages fisheries?

Cheers

Tim

I must admit that in this country I do not like too much the idea of stocking rainbows into rivers. They are fine in landlocked waters like man made lakes and reservoirs of course.

However it is worth remembering that rainbows do not live too long and I would also support a policy of all rainbows caught to be killed, browns to be released.

Tricky one this. personally i love catching brownies and feel theyre more of a challenge but appreciate the sport rainbows can provide. Personally i would only put browns into rivers, there's something about them. Rainbows also live shorter, and tend to roam, whereas Browns are territorial.

I thought it was illegal to put rainbows in rivers ??

Quite tightly controlled but not illegal. Some of the commercialised and corporate hospitality beats on the Test and the Kennet are still stocking rainbows, but it does seem as if English river anglers' tastes are returning more and more towards browns. Unless of course you are one of those lucky anglers living in or visiting Derbyshire who fishes for true wild rainbows in the Peak District rivers - definitely on my "to try..." list

__________________
"Depend on it Sir, this is a battle you sometimes win, and sometimes must expect to lose" - the Compleat Angler
JH based near Southampton

There is a fish farm on the river Cairn, the main Tributary of the River Nith,
there is always lots of escapees, very easy to catch, then they seem to vanish,
I talked to a Haaf Netter who told me, they pick them up in their nets,
So they are obviously heading to sea.

In Italy, stocking of rainbow trout is now banned in all salmonid class "A" rivers, i.e., which support a wild, breeding population of native trout.

Having said that, there are loads of rainbows in the rivers here, mostly escapees from trout farms, many of which are situated right next to said class "A" rivers, and some grown-on. I 'm not sure that rainbow trout actually do breed in the wild in Italy, but I may be wrong.

There are all sorts of articles on how stocked trout, whether brown or rainbow, immediately after they're introduced, disrupt the pecking order of established trout and compete for food in an already delicately balanced ecosystem. They can also introduce disease, as evidenced by the infamous whirling disease in the U.S.

I don't know what the picture is like in the U.K., perhaps your many chalkstreams are rich enough food and space-wise to support continued stockings of trout (many of which in reality get caught very shortly after introduction).

I personally prefer better management of the whole river system -- the stream itself, its catchment area, the way it's used, etc. I have nothing against stocking them in self-contained lakes and reservoirs where they pose no danger/threat/competition to an already stressed native trout population.

I fish mainly in rivers, but there are streams here in Italy that hold native trout that I sometimes just visit - no fishing - just to look at the fish and make sure they're still around and doing well. They're rare enough as it is.

BTW, if it helps, here's a previous thread discussing Montana's decision to stop stocking trout altogether:

Why Montana went wild

Thanks for all the input gents. John I hope you get to go after the rainbows on the Wye, I had opportunity to fish the Peacock stretch in July which was great fun and caught some nice Rainbows.

You're right there Muddler

Inflammatory question..I posted a similar query and within an hour or two the lynch mob had been formed.If your river has a sustainable population of wild browns leave it alone.If it hasnt I see no difference between stocking triploid browns to stocking rainbows- apart from the price anyway..But you may find not everbody shares this view...