Andy Tucker takes us to small stream he likes to fish and questions the need for stocking along the way.
I was fishing a small North Yorkshire stream recently, the sort of small stream I love. A place for short rods, fine long tippets and small flies. A never stocked stream where the wild fish are shy but take eagerly and on the right gear fight harder pound for pound than most and decent catches of 20, 30 or more pristine wild fish in a three or four hour session are definitely on the cards, even for someone of my limited ability. I was having a great few hours thoroughly lost in the solitude of the place and the intimacy of the surroundings. I had many fish and one real specimen of about 12”, I apologise to you readers for the use of old money in describing the size. Saying a specimen of 300mm somehow just doesn’t work.
Anyway as I worked around one corner of the river which skirted a meadow I was startled to hear the “Had owt decent mate?” There was a couple picnicking high above me on the stream bank. “Yes “I replied “I`ve had quite a few”. “ All tiddlers I reckon? “Was the parting shot as I hastened to get around the next bend and away from the interruption. As I fished upstream his words sat heavily upon me I suppose I cursed both the interruption and his doubting the perfection of my catch. But then he had a point - the fish ARE small - and part of me wanted to go back and explain to him the error in his thinking, explain that here in this Lilliput fishery a 12” fish is indeed a Gulliver and every bit a specimen. But as I worked upstream the interruption evaporated from my mind and I fell back under the spell of the place.
"A small stream specimen"
A few days later I was reading through some of the earliest club meeting minutes and catch returns from another fishing club that I am a member. The club was founded in 1890 and we have a continuous record of minutes of every year's AGM and committee meetings. Interesting reading for a saddo like me. As I was reading through the meeting records what was of interest to me was the catch and stocking reports and it became obvious to me that anglers back 100 years ago were happy to catch fewer numbers of smaller fish. A takeable fish was 8” and the average “kill” for the season was often say 10 brace of 9”. I can say with certainty that many of our current members would be unhappy with such meagre returns as I suspect would the majority of modern day anglers. For the past 100 years fish have been stocked and informal records were kept as to the size of the fish such as “as being a good number of 9” plus fish were included in the stocking”. Certainly the stocking of 2lb plus fish as many local streams see now was unheard of. I suppose such fish would be hard to source back then as hatchery science was not as developed. But what is obvious to me is how our perceptions have changed of what is a reasonable catch, even during my short fly fishing career since catching my first brown trout on a fly in the river Leven in Cleveland in 1970. I have seen and read of ever increasing sizes of fish, I remember reading of the Avington giants and watched the increasing stillwater scene and have since seen the ever increasing stocking of large fish in small streams.
I would be pretty certain that at least around here 100 years ago our northern local streams were in a better state of health than they are these days and as such, more able to sustain a greater head of fish.
So when at next spring's AGM, that annual clamour for more stocking and bigger fish is heard, the truth is that often this is not, as is often argued, because things aren’t what they were. The reality is the stocking of larger fish is becoming the norm and sight has been lost of what the natural river trout is in reality. I am sure that the growing stillwater scene over the last 30 years is a huge factor. Whilst being of huge benefit in making good fly fishing available to a growing number of anglers, the concern is that wholly unrealistic expectations are taking root. That the increasing size of fish that us as anglers demand to be stocked will destroy that which we all love so much. We will just end up with more completely put and take fisheries albeit with moving water. I recently met the Membership Secretary of a large club with over 1000 members. The same story from him - an ever increasing demand for heavier stocking and for larger fish, incidentally leading to higher club costs, and higher subscriptions. At what point will someone say enough is enough.
As an aside, this year around here the rivers and streams have been at an historical low level and during those dog days of summer the fish that have been active have been the smaller wildies, on a number of occasions I have caught decent numbers of fish whilst others bemoaned the dreadful fishing and blanked. In the height of summer I fished for days, even weeks, without encountering a stocky. Small dries, fine leaders and targeting the faster riffles has kept me catching whilst the stockies sulked in the deep dark eddies. For me vindication of the benefits of wild fish but I am sure that for others it will mean that next spring the clamour will be we need even more stocking.
"My best fish of the day, a real clunker"
I have had keen stillwater anglers guest on some of my local streams and after the first hour I often see the familiar signs. Many do come clean and even ask the question. Is there anything bigger? I was fishing with a guy on my club water a couple of years back and he hooked and landed the biggest wild fish I had ever seen on the water. Whilst being jealous and pleased for my guest at the same time my overriding emotion was of disappointment that the guy clearly didn’t appreciate what a cracking fish he had just caught. It was an absolutely fin perfect wild fish of nearly 14", a real belter. Later at the car he showed me his gallery of best catches on his phone. It was a sad display of very large browns and rainbows. A bunch of unhealthily proportioned fish without a decent set of fins between the lot of them. But I must admit they were big.
I am not a total anti stocking evangelist. I am a realist and I am involved with the running of one of my local clubs and it's plain enough that should the club stop stocking then there is a very real risk that many members would leave, not to be replaced. Resulting in the club ceasing to exist. But I do fear for the ever increasing clamour of more and bigger fish and what our streams will become. There is a balance to be struck I just hope that we as anglers strike it right.