Josh
.. the James River is a tidal influenced river and I am sure has a much wider and larger supply of food than the Ohio River does. Like Dinkbuster said it is much richer in nutrients and being further south they have a longer growing season. Another factor may be that Ohio owns very little of the Ohio River. With the damns, stocked fish would pretty much be stuck in the pools they were stocked in and this may affect the reproduction. I am pretty sure that Ohio isnt interested in stocking the downstream (Kentucky) pools for the commercial fisherman to harvest. Most states will only stock fish of one kind in a body of water for a predetermined number of years and then relay on it to propagate on it own, unless the fish is a hybrid that will not reproduce.
Having worked for ODNR for a number of years I can say with certainty, if you are going to write them with a request, you need to write in a positive manner, stating all of the positive results that a stocking can have on the state or a given area. Being negative or sarcastic in writing them will do absolutely no good and get you no positive results
.. That is my opinion and I am sticking to it.
.Garry- :wink: