OK, I'll get in on this... Since no one else seems to have an opinion...

First, we have had both Rainbows and Browns "survive the season" here. Witness below a 9.25" Brown from this past November 3, 2007. That fish was stocked last January at no larger than 7 inches, possibly much less!

The best Rainbow I've personally taken was a 20 incher at Riverside Park Aug 31 of 1999 - the first year that we had a Catch & Release area implemented on this river and long before we've seen the size of fish stocked that we have this season. My second largest was caught on a Labor Day weekend back in the late 80's in a relatively inaccessible (at the time) part of the river.

It's clear that both fish have at least a chance to survive. They just need to remain in the river for a while. And we have some really big pools on this river that I know some of these Browns are going to enjoy for a long time, assuming ignorant anglers or outlaws don't remove them and we don't lose all of them to natural predators.

I'm sure the folks that fish the Lower Mountain Fork in OK would argue that putting Browns in that river was a pretty good idea. It's not a whole lot different than here as far as habitat.

If you want to talk about displacing native fish, such as Smallmouth, that's kind of a different discussion. So let's tear down all these big dams and return these rivers to what they were before 1950!

I'm sure the north Arkansas folks (and people from all over the country)  don't want to be fishing for 20-25 pound Browns at Bull Shoals and Cow Shoals either...

A "waste of resources"? You're going to complain about toting 600 five inch Browns down here with 4,000 12 to 18 inch Rainbows!

Introducing a handful of small Browns, essentially, to see how they do, is somehow a worse thing than dropping a several dozen 16-20 inch Rainbows at the same time only to have a number of them removed in a few days?

Which fish did it "cost" more to raise - the 5 inch Brown or the 18 inch Rainbow? Are you going to say that a ten year old kid from south Texas or Louisiana shouldn't come here and be able to catch that 18 incher. That was a waste to that family?

I'm just not really sure what your problem is with introducing variety of fish into a place where they could be viable as long as they're not detrimental.

AGFC has taken a very scientific approach to bringing Browns to the Little Mo'. It's not like they were loading thousands of 10 inch Browns in here willy-nilly. And they want to see if they do well or not. They are reacting, with a degree of caution, to the interests of anglers who requested that we try Browns here because they desire some variety.

And if Browns do well and create a whole new niche of "resident" fish, that just makes our fishing experience better! Just my opinion.

Are you simply against non-native species generally, or against Brown trout in particular anywhere, or just trout outside of north Arkansas?

Pardon me, if I took offense to your line of thought.

And Jeff you failed to mention all of the work that AGFC, and a certain local person, has done in monitoring stream temperatures, water flows, and ph levels before they would even consent to stocking those browns. They have been discussing browns on the Lil Mo for years but just recently started stocking the browns. So that blows the hell out the "willy nilly" theory or the wasted resource because they had a reasonable amount of belief that they would survive before they dumped them in to start with. Maybe this guy should have a few discusions with the AGFC or someone locally with a lot more information on the subject than he obviously has taken time to acquire. Don't apologize for your comments, you've done way to much and worked way to hard to get us where we are to have someone pop off with a comment that takes away from everything you believe in and support. And I guess he wishes us to believe that the people from NW Arkansas are the only law abiding citizens in the entire USA. It doesn't matter what river or where it's located, if you talk to flyfishing locals long enough the conversation will turn to size and creel limit violations and how to control it. Being from SW Arkansas I find it amazing that this guy would concern himself over what we want in our streams. Since he doesn't know the facts on the issue maybe he should just stay at home and fish up there on the waters in NW Arkansas.