WARNING: Two round rant follows:
To paraphrase some unknown realist: A government big enough to give all that you want is big enough to take all that you have.
(Think
Seinfeld TV episodes with the Soup Nazi.)
Me: Gimme trout!
ODOW: No! No! No trout for you!
Full disclosure: my kids, their kids, lots of our friends, and yours truly have netted literally hundreds of these released trout over the years. SWMBO and I eat them every week. They're good for you. Our medics tell us to eat them
twice a week. (That's kind of scary in itself. Ha!)
Now, it's not my intention to put a damper on people who fish for having fun. Hopefully, these people are in the company of their family and/or friends. That's pretty much what I think it should be about. (The good part of living a long life is filling up your memory vault with the excitement, laughter, and smiles of your family and friends.) And, the stated motive behind ODOW's trout release program is
increasing fishery participation. We're talking about lots of smiley faces.
ODOW decided this year that the waters here in Williams County won't get any Catchable Rainbow T
rout (CRT, really?). ODOW claims to have made some "
adjustments" as to where these fish will be released in order to accomplish its stated mission:
To conserve and improve fish and wildlife resources and their habitats for sustainable use and appreciation by all. [emphesis mine]
I take issue with ODOW's CRT release as it pertains to its stated mission.
With regard to ODOW's mission of
sustainable use, I
read that the chosen species (CRT) is not even a native trout to Ohio. That would make its propagation a resource consumer; i.e., people, property, time, and money. And not just a little bit!
CRT are the Division’s most expensive stocking program, with fish costing $5 each to produce and extensive fish transportation for stocking. Ouch! I'm confident smarter people than me have worked it all out wherein consuming mega-resources to attract people to fish for a non-native species is more resource-effective than simply reducing fishing license fees. Does anyone notice how much fishing participation increases on Free Fishing Weekends?
With regard to ODOW's mission to achieve
appreciation by all, it misses the mark, well, markedly. Declaring that the release of CRT in the 70-some Ohio lakes and ponds is "close to home," is literally a reach. Personally, my closest chance at CRT in previous years here in Williams County was 8.6 miles away and now they are 48.1 miles and two counties away. (I know, "But, who is counting?") So, participants wanting to take advantage of this "fish in a barrel opportunity" is, dare I say it, not really appreciated by all. In fact, it's markedly unequal. In a land of equal opportunity, I would think that the ODOW would be a little more sensitive to prioritizing one segment of Ohio's population (the CCC strip) over another. I'm also confident that smarter people than me have worked it all out wherein consuming mega-resources to attract
prioritized people to fish for a non-native species is more resource-effective than simply hyping the infamous bluegill,
one of the most common species in Ohio [that] can be found in almost every body of water throughout the state. Maybe that's just crazy talk.
I readily admit that catching CRT close to home was fun; still is for the chosen ones, I'm sure. It was all artificial, expensive, and unequal; still is.
Our tax dollars grew the ODOW big enough to give us CRT and blatantly big enough to take them all away, at least 39.5 miles away from me. Ha!
It seems silly and a huge waste of time and money to put these fish in a lake that's barely 12 feet deep. 
