^^^ agree with you 100% - I think the state should spend its money on establishing and managing self-sustaining fisheries, not offsetting people's grocery bills in exchange for fishing license fees.

As far as the record fish issue, the standing record brown is 18lbs 5oz from 2011 out of the Saugatuck Reservoir - what are the chances that it wasn't a breeder released at some point a few years back - pretty unlikely in my guestimation. It's not like it's been a standing record since the 50's or anything - so my guess is the record is already tainted by breeder stocking.

It would have been nice if the state tagged these fish and disqualified the record from falling to any stocked breeders, but if it wasn't done when they started throwing breeders in it's not going to matter now.