Cecil, for the brown trout in particular... Is it a put and grow fishery because of a lack of spawning habitat, as in streams to ascend and spawn in or because of poor survival of the smolts? There are several streams in PA where brown trout will reproduce fine, there just isn't the correct nursery habitat for the brown trout smolts so the vast majority get eaten before they reach a catchable size.
Lack of high quality spawning habitat for the most part, although there is some natural reproduction in places. What does hatch probably has to survive a gauntlet of predators (what you elude to), and of course fishing pressure.
From what i was told by a biologist at the Wild Rose Hatchery in Wisconsin, back when I did my outdoor column, the Seeforellen strain is a fish that prefers to ascend moving waters connected to lakes(similar to their native habitat). Wisconsin collects their broodfish in a weir or electroshocks vs. Michigan, that used to keep broodfish on hand, but as far as I know no longer does. I believe Wisconsin is the only one prepetuating the Seeforellen strain although I could be wrong. Many of these planted fish of course don't know state boundaries and end up being other state records. That's happened several times in Lake Michigan waters of Indiana back when Indiana did not plant brown trout. Indiana now gets brown trout to stock Lake Michigan from the feds. Not sure what strain however.
BTW the hatchery manager in Wisconsin told me anyone that thinks they can tell this strain from another by looking at them is deceiving themselves. He told me when he went back and compared tags to what he thought were Seeforellen, he was wrong much of the time.
