>>2102914I think the asshole elitism about stocked fish is overdone, but it's also pretty silly to equate wild trout (even if they were stocked 20 generations ago) and stockers. There are plenty of places to find wild trout, especially out west. It's still cool to catch a big fish no matter if it was stocked yesterday, but it's not hard to see why somebody who worked their ass off to finally find a 10lb bass wouldn't be impressed by somebody holding up a 10 pounder straight out of a Bass Pro Shops fish tank, lip sores and all. Same deal with trout. You need to work hard to find a fishery where you can catch a wild 20 inch brook trout, much less catch one that survived the years it takes to get that big, while you just need to look up places that stock trophy size ones and get there on a stocking day to pretty much certainly catch a stocked one. A stocked trophy trout is about as impressive as a 3lb bass. Good on anybody who is happy with their new PB, I'm happy for them as well, but it's also not going to be very awe-inducing for random fucks online.
I think that dude was being a total asshole to call it out like that, but going the exact opposite way and saying that caring about wild trout is just pedantry is dumb as fuck as well.
