Yep, trout are certainly one of the best LMB options, and I really, really wish they'd live here for 5-6 months. That would sure make the tilapia/trout forage combo a game changer. In our area, retail on those 8,000 pounds of RBT would be $80,000.
Crowley Lake near Mammoth is 5,280 acres and "is stocked with hundreds of thousands of small and medium sized trout" per year and they expect a typical catch rate of 50,000 RBT just on the trout opening day weekend alone.
There's 23 hatcheries in California, and I have no idea how many trout they raise for stocking annually. They typically would stock streams and reservoirs every week or at a minimum, every two weeks. When you consider how big the state is, and all the waters that they stock, that's a heck of a lot of fish!! They won't survive the warm weather in the streams further South in the state, but some would live all year long in the reservoirs due to their water clarity and depth. BUT, a lot were eaten by LMB in the reservoirs too!! It's not usual to have a catfish and trout fishery in the same BOW, but out there it was common.
How 'bout a 113 pound Blue Cat?
https://www.wonews.com/t-SCFreshReport-BRADLEYSchweit-091808.aspx When I lived there, every year they would stock some of the brooder trout in some of the streams. Those fish are 10-20 pounds each.
Trout fishing in Ca. is a big thing, and lots of people make the pilgrimage every year to the mountain streams for the opener of trout season. A friend had a timeshare there, and we would make the 6+ hr drive (370 miles) every year for the opener and fish the whole weekend.
I remember one day just walking a few streams with his son, who was around 12-13. We flat wore out a few rooster tail spinners that day, I remember catching slightly over 100 trout one day; all the hair was worn off of the spinner before the end of that day. The hold over fish in Crowley Lake from the previous year all had red flesh, that's how you could tell them from the stockers.
