No this~:


BBC - Berkshire - In Pictures - In Pics: Henley Royal Regatta 2008

Not sure if that isn't good old Giles Fortesmytthheee-Foverwingthqueue in frame three?

TFR

I think you have a very skewed and IMO incorrect view of wild fishing, the people that do it and what it means to people.

Keep up now.

I don't think any of my views are incorrect.

Here's some wild trout stuff:


Highland Wild Trout Challenge | The Urban Fly Fisher

And your point is?

Just comparing my views to yours and I'm not winding you up either

Stocked fish can help wiht falling wild stocks, rejeuvanating a 'dead' river.
Only if the brood stock is taken from the wild fish and stocked as fingerlings.
Fix the river and you will have wild fish in abundance - ooops thats too obvious.

Stocked fish reduce the pressure on wild fishing
Nope, it just means more people participate in catching stockies.


Stocked fish provide an easy to catch quarry for those new to the sport.

and to those not new to the sport it provides what , let me guess, and your words, "an easy to catch quarry".

Stocked fish can be fished for year round meaning our sport can be enjoyed whenever.

Nature made things seasonal, man knows better and can bypass nature, yippee, not.


Stocked fish can be grown to all variety of sizes and colours! providing large fish for stalkers like me, and variety for all.

Just like Mc Donalds

Stocked fish are better for competition purposes.

Off course they are, they are easier to catch so its a wonderful event. The winner can take pride in being better at catching the easier ones quicker than anyone else.


Each to their own Alex

I have fished a few stocked fisheries, and enjoyed it for what it was. Not a hope I ever will again.

I suppose I'm simply lucky to have wild fishing available to me, and in no way do I cast aspersions on any that fish stocked fisheries. The gulf between the two is like chalk and cheese.

You refer more than once to "the sport" and I can see how you would view it as such. Fishing for Wild trout is not a sport, it is part of who you are and how you view the world - unless you are totally blinkered you will gain a wonderful appreciation of nature, the order of its seasons, the wildlife and the hatches and above all you learn how to fit in with the order of things and realise you are just a mere traveller, sipping of its pleasures.

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Back The Con - down to 1717
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I must be fishing the wrong stocked waters - or else the little river I fish for brownies must be exceptionally easy.

Maybe you are a fine river angler and lacking in the finesse required for stocked waters

All fishing wild or stocked can be at times be equally difficult and equally easy there is no argument from me on that one.

If there was enough quality wild trout fishing available this discussion would not happen, I wish there was and that more anglers could taste what is an incredibly different journey.

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Back The Con - down to 1717
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Trouble is, that's not going to happen any time soon in the South Of England...the second most densely populated part of Europe behind only the Netherlands.

I have been very lucky this season to catch excellent specimens from 3 types of water, a near 4lb wild brown from a small Dorset chalkstream, a 6lb 10oz reservoir rainbow, and a 10lb rainbow from a small commercial stillwater. I was delighted with all of them and the fact that one was wild, the second stocked and grown on and the third only recently stocked made no difference to my enjoyment and appreciation of each one. Nor did the fact that the brown was briefly admired and carefully returned, and the rainbows were killed to be enjoyed again as food.

I am also struggling to understand the objection to Alex's use of the word "sport". The description "field sports" is an ancient one and the usage in respect of fishing goes back many, many years. You are not confusing "sports" (as in fishing, shooting and hunting) with "games" (as in cricket, golf and the oval or round football disciplines), are you ?

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"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

I must say that was my finding largely, one five inch brownie followed by the next, as I "slipped deleriously ecstatic into a nature loving trance, in my American waterproofs and baseball cap".

My stocked commercial fishery is so beautiful you wouldn't believe.

"The riffle riffled as I cast my super dooper emerger into the path of another stunted, six inch inbred..........."

I still don't understand your objection, the small fish in the single link you chose to post, the baseball cap, the trance, the American clothing?

Do elaborate please, i want to follow the righteous path?