Hi!

Many of our lakes are what we call 'put and take' lakes. We plant catchable fish in them and anglers harvest them out. Some lakes we do plant fingerling in and allow the lake to grow them out. Not all of our waters can do this so, that is why we have such an intense stocking program (at least in southwest Washington where I am based). We offer broodstock and triploid (a trout with a third chromosome that makes it sterile and all energy goes to growing and none to reproduction) to give anglers a variety in the sizes of trout that can be harvested.

Hope that answers your question!

stace
Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
Region 5
Vancouver WA