Vermont's 12-fish daily limit on brook trout still stands
Nearly a year after NFC first brought it to the attention of the masses, Vermont’s highest-in-the-east daily limit on brook trout in rivers and streams, 12-fish, still stands. As is often the case, turf has trumped trout and the advocacy community has not been able to band together to effectively push back on what is a regional embarrassment and an affront to modern fisheries management.
No matter how you cut the numbers, Vermont comes out on top — and not in a good way. And we are not talking about being slightly behind the curve, but 33% worse than the next highest, Massachusetts and Georgia, and more than 50% higher than most other states.
Even when you look at the averages by geographic areas, Vermont sticks out as an anomaly, and something that cannot be defended under any rational environmental, social, or economic basis.
To provide a higher level of protection to nonnative, and often stocked, rainbows and browns than native, and often wild, brook trout in rivers and streams defies logic. To do the same regarding what are mostly stocked rainbows, browns, and brookies in lakes and ponds equally so.
“Vermont’s ‘State Cold Water Fish’ deserves better than a highest-in-the-east daily limit of 12-fish”
