01-09-2013, 12:00 AM
Stocked fish. Stocked fish are great, they keep our lakes that don't have sufficient natural repro producing good fish for a lot of people. But I don't feel that they are "expendables" especially the ones that have grown for a year or two. Right now everyone that has been fishing Chesterfield are complaining about catching the fall planted "stocked fish". Obviously the older and larger fish are more fun.
Stocked fish aren't free. There were 54,385 catchable sized fish that were stocked in Chesterfield last year. That is about 20,122 pounds of fish. They were probably raised at the Grace Hatchery. The cost last year at the Grace hatchery was $3.72 per pound for feed costs. I don't think that even includes personnel or facilities. That puts last year's stocking at about $74,853. Since the ONLY money that F&G has is from license fees, that is a lot of license fees!
I say don't waste them!
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Stocked fish aren't free. There were 54,385 catchable sized fish that were stocked in Chesterfield last year. That is about 20,122 pounds of fish. They were probably raised at the Grace Hatchery. The cost last year at the Grace hatchery was $3.72 per pound for feed costs. I don't think that even includes personnel or facilities. That puts last year's stocking at about $74,853. Since the ONLY money that F&G has is from license fees, that is a lot of license fees!
I say don't waste them!
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