Fish in a Barrel

I went out on my yearly FatherInLaw/SonInLaw trout fishing expedition on the Tohickon on Wednesday. They had stocked it on Tuesday, and I wanted to make sure that it had been stocked, as the last year, we went prior to it's stocking by mistake, thinking that all trout streams are stocked prior to opening day, which proved to be untrue. So, on Tuesday after work, I went and proceeded to catch and release about 25 trout, mostly salmo trutta but there were a few oncorhynchus mykiss mixed in. I was using red mealworms for the most part, and they seemed to work very well. I didn't have any issues with my respooled reel either.I worked all my usual riffles and eddies that I have figured out over the years would hold trout, and had a nice old time. Things were looking good for Wednesday morning. Wednesay morning rolls around, I pick up some coffee for the Old man (he's 72) and I and proceeded to meet him at his "spot". His legs are going, so he can't walk too far, so his "spot" is within easy access of the road, but in a less than ideal location of the stream, in comparison to the areas I have success with. It is slower, and there isn't really much structure for the fish to hold on. I got to the spot first, and began fishing, with little success. I use a trout float, with about 1.5 feet of leader to the hook, and a splitshot or two for eight, and try to keep the bait just above the bottom, looking as natural as possible with the flow of the creek. My FatherInLaw, on the other hand, likes to bottom fish, using just splitshot and a leader,which in most cases would be successful, but this year it just caused him grief, as the bottom was all weedy and snaggy due to the creek being low. after 3 hours of hard fishing, I had caught 5 trout, 3 small ones, and two decent sized (11 inch) salmo trutta. I also caught a bunch of lepomis macrochirus which are a sideproduct of using mealworms, as they wont usually hit a spinner, but love mealies. Anyways, my FatherInLaw gavce up without even catching a lepomis macrochirus, whihc is quite unfortunate, but a refelction of his choice of location and fishing styles, and his set in his ways refusal to change to a more effective tactic. After he left, I switched to a spinner, I only have three trout ones, a silver kastmaster, a gold phoebe, and a black and gold mepps, and proceeded to catch 5 more salmo trutta after another 2 hours of hard fishing, mostly on the gold phoebe. I don't really see what the real big deal with the stocked trout fishing. They will die off in about 8 weeks if not taken to creel, and though there are many stocked, i would personally like to see less stocked if it would mean larger size. Even more preferable, I would like to see more emphasis put on other fisheries, but I guess the PA Boat and Fish Commission makes most of their licence dues from the very casual trout fisherman, who only goes out on opening day and a few others.
Ah well. I'm about half done my roll of film of fish pictures, I'll have quite a few to post when I finish the roll. I'm actually hoping to get the wife shopping this weekend for a digital camera. Wish me luck!