QUOTE(phil dean @ Nov 5 2007, 04:08 PM)

It's a pretty fair point, the best trout fishing for brown trout, near me, is on a stretch of river that can't have had any significant change in its genetic makeup for centuries due to no stocking and a large weir. The tyne, which used to have a fantastic head of brown trout, is less of a trout river than it was (though still holding good brown trout) which may be linked to an increase in stockings further downstream but could easily be due to the change in the farming techniques or the lack of pollution?
Of course Brown Trout should be protected. They are the sign of a healthy river, just like the presence of grayling are. However I do not feel I am sufficiently enough qualified to comment on the use of triploid browns. I can understand the point about cross breeding however. Am I right in thinking that almost each watercourse trout appear in has it's own strain. If that is the case there is a very strong point to make for stocking each river only with fish bred from the strain.
I know many others will say 'No Stocking' at all, invest in very good keepering and let the trout flourish with help. A very good case for this is demonstrated by a guy called Warren Slaney who looks after an estate water in Derbyshire. If his work could be replicated there would be no need to have a discussion on stocking BUT C & R would become a requirement I guess. If you want one for the pot you would have to fish a stocked pond / lake / reservoir