Between EP030 and the Indigo Conference, why did Ash travel with only five Pokemon?

At first, Ash had reached his total with Krabby sent to Prof. Oak, but then Butterfree flew off with Pink Butterfree, Haunter stayed with Sabrina, Primeape went under training, and Muk had a foul odor. What gives?

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

Honestly I think it was because during the first season of the Anime Ash was inexperienced as a Pokémon Trainer and at catching Pokémon.

The Primeape Ash caught was left in the care of Anthony who offered to train Primeape for Ash, with the promise of training it to become a P1 champion.

You could say then why didn’t he catch any other Pokémon?

Well as I mentioned above Ash was very inexperienced at the time, he was a step or seven behind other Pokémon trainers such as Gary. With Gary catching around forty-five Pokémon by the time Ash had only caught his seventh. To add to this Ash’s Charizard would not listen to him or obey his commands in a Pokémon battle.

The first Pokémon Ash caught (Caterpie) was by luck as he didn’t even battle it to capture it, he just threw a Poké Ball. When he tried the same technique with Pidgeotto it broke free, in fact if it wasn’t for Misty telling him he had to battle it he probably would not of caught it. But of course what does Ash do when battling Pidgeotto, instead of sending out Pikachu to battle it, an Electric type he sends out his newly caught Caterpie a Bug type.

In addition to his lack of experience, many of Ash’s first Gym Badges were given to him merely out of gratitude for his assistance rather than claiming an actual victory in battle over the Gym Leaders; of his first five Gym battles, only his victory over Lt. Surge was an actual victory.

Source: Knowledge and Bulbapedia

Hope I helped :)

It seems as if all his Pokemon found better lives and for the sake of their happiness, he let them go. Theoretically, in his emotion he didn’t bother replacing them too much to preserve their memories. That’s probably why he traveled with only 5 Pokemon to the indigo league.