Some good posts. I think Norm points out that there really are some good reasons for many of the laws we have about stocking fish. Notice I said "many" but not all. In Minnesota we can't move a fish from one place to another at all without a permit. You can't even put a sunfish in an aquarium for the kids without a permit. We have to transport all fish dead. We can't import, raise, or stock HSB or grass carp at all. We can't import fish from any other state. All of these rules have reasons behind them I suppose. If there would have been similar laws in place everywhere in the past we may not have the problems we do with carp, milfoil, etc. Even though the laws seem too strict we also need to remember that they need to be enforcible. If you make a law that says something is illegal unless you get an exception then you spend a lot of time and money evaluating all the exceptions that people want and then we tax payers complain it costs too much. That's why we end up with laws that are hard and fast, like the cattle that can't cross the guys own field. I try to obey all the laws even if I don't like them, there might be a reason I don't know about. But we do have some laws here that seem just plain dumb. In my state I can't fish on my own pond without a license and I have to abide by the catch limits. I can't think of a good reason for that one and I can't think of any harm in violating it. But I abide anyway since I've always got a fishing license and I can't eat more than a limits worth of fish each day anyway. By the way I can hunt small game on my land without any license. Go figure.

Gotta get back to fishin!