[Billfish715]

A plausible explanation for the increase in predation rates, the 2017 report notes, "could simply be due to the time of year where more predators are spending more time hunting for trout because of the reproductive life cycles."

In other words: "There's hungry mouths at home that need to be fed."

But to reach that conclusion, the report said more study is needed on predation rates in other parts of the state.

The first year's results "answered many key questions on why the Flat Brook "catch and release" area is not holding trout to expected levels," Shramko wrote, "but it also unearthed, as studies often due, more questions about movement and predation rates in the Flat Brook system."

I enjoyed reading the article and think the research is worthwhile, however, I have some reservations about its purpose. Results seem to indicate there is quite a bit of natural predation. So, how will these results affect the Division's future decisions?

"More study is needed" & "expected levels" is administrative jargon to justify a need to continue to find justification to continue the survey and to continue to certify someone's "expectations" that the Flatbrook can sustain more trout stocking. Finding scientific data to support expectations is hardly a scientific approach. It seems there is a pre-conceived notion that the "Brook" can and will (and must) hold an increased trout population if more fish are stocked; and the Division will go to any length to prove its point.

I just think the council members need to re-evaluate the goals of the trout stocking program. They just should not cater to every special interest group that has economic and political support. Everyone pays the same license fees, yet those with political clout and the most vociferous voices get their way. If the state stocks more trout in the C&R stretches then someone, somewhere else is going to be receiving fewer trout. If the C&R stretches can not support a sizeable population of trout unless more and more fish are stocked, then what is the sense of having those designated areas just for the pleasure of a few special interest groups? New Jersey is not Wyoming. The Flatbrook and South Branch are not the Bighorn or Yellowstone.

How far we've come politically.........! We now refer to certain areas as Catch and Release. What ever happened to "No Kill"?