How Stocking Recreational Fisheries Works (and Sometimes Does not)

Nicholas Fisch, Diana Perry, Chelsey Crandall, Nick Trippel, and Edward V. Camp

Release Date: 4/4/2022

Reviewed At: 6/3/2025

DOI: 10.32473/edis-fr449-2022

Natural Resources

Abstract

Stock enhancement or “stocking” is one of the oldest, most common, and most popular ways of improving recreational fisheries. Stocking is usually supposed to increase the number of fish available for anglers to catch. Unfortunately, stocking doesn’t always do this. The reasons why it may not always work as planned relate to some important concepts of fish ecology. This publication describes those ecological concepts and then also describes the three primary “outcomes” of stocking that anglers might observe. In the end, stocking can be very effective, but only if the stocked fish survive reasonably well and don’t decrease the population of wild fish.

About this Publication

This document is FOR378 one of a series of the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date April 2022. Visit the EDIS website at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu for the currently supported version of this publication.

About the Authors

Nicholas Fisch, PhD student, School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatics Sciences; Diana Perry, PhD student, School of Natural Resources and the Environment; Chelsey Crandall, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; Nick Trippel, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; and Edward V. Camp, assistant professor, School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatics Sciences; UF/IFAS Extension, Gainesville 32611.

How to Cite

Fisch, N., Perry, D., Crandall, C., Trippel, N., & Camp, E. V. (2022). How Stocking Recreational Fisheries Works (and Sometimes Does not). EDIS, 2022(2). https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-fr449-2022

Authors

Edward Camp

Contact

Specialist

University of Florida

associate professor, fisheries and aquaculture governance, UF/IFAS School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, Program in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Gainesville FL

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Publication #FOR378