Biggest wild trout this season?

[Maurice]

troutbert wrote:

The_Sasquatch wrote:
I believe many of us were basing the "holdover" status on the spot patterns of the brown, which seem very typical of the standard PAFC stocked brown. I've never seen a wild brown w/ that kind of spot pattern. Have you?

Yes. In some of the large limestone streams, such as Bald Eagle Creek and the Little Juniata, there are wild browns with similar patterns.

Got any pictures?

I too have never seen wild fish with the "connected" elongated black spots. Many hatchery trout raised do though. And also notice the lack of red spots along the lateral line.

When hatchery trout that do not have red lateral line spots, and they never do. Sometimes they may be orange or rusty, there are neither here. They are developed at the fry stage and become targets for the red pigmentation infusion from subsequent diet choices. If they do not exist the red goes elsewhere and takes over some of the black spots, especially during the spawning season.

This also occurs in wild fish when the carotene overwhelms the natural red areas. See this alot on penns.

This fish looks like a typical hatchery trout from our co-op nursery that had been in the water through a fall and winter after being stocked.

Id say its likely a fall stocked nursery holdover that made it through the winter and spring.

 

[tstooge26]

My biggest wild this year taken down the savage river. Got to fish this water for the first time this year. Fish only measured 16 in but they def have some spunk down there. Taken on sz 16 shop vac

 

[wildtrout2]

tstooge, that's a beautiful wild brown. Very healthy looking. I love the wild browns with fewer spots.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

pro4mance wrote:
So, not trying to be a #Dbag but this thread has been #Hijacked as usual

I agree.

 

[ryansheehan]

There are no wild fish on the savage, 100% stocker. :lol:

 

[ryansheehan]

I've had a lot of wild fish in the 15-17 inch range, got this guy on the savage last weekend.

 

[troutbert]

The_Sasquatch wrote:
It's amazing to me how one of those crappy State browns can end up looking like this fish after being in the stream for a while!

This post raises an interesting question:

DO "crappy state browns" end up looking like the trout in post #44, after being in the stream a while?

Many people assume that they do. But that doesn't mean that it's actually the case.

Is there any strong evidence that this actually happens?

I'm skeptical about it. I've seen many browns that are obviously of hatchery origin, based on the condition of the fins, that have decent color, so very likely did "color up" after being in the stream awhile.

But I doubt that hatchery trout with fins that are badly worn and bent ever morph into trout with perfect fins like those of wild trout.

Once the fins are badly damaged, I think that will always be visible. There may be some re-growth at the fin edges. But wild trout have fins with parallel rays. In hatchery trout with damaged fins, the rays are bent and compressed. I doubt that that ever changes.

So when you see a trout with good color and perfect fins, the explanation that it was a "crappy state" hatchery trout, that was transformed after being in the stream a while, is one of the least likely of the possible explanations.

The more likely possible explanations are:

1) It's a wild trout.

2) It's a hatchery trout raised in a small hatchery where trout often have little fin damage and have access to natural foods, so take on a deep coloration, so can look very close in appearance to wild trout.

 

[rrt]

Though I have not fished for them, the big brown trout the Big Brown Trout Club stocks on Pine Creek are lovely, at least in the video clips I have seen of them being stocked. If they were put into a stream with wild browns, I doubt that they could visually be distinguished from the wild trout, except for their large size. (If Pine didn't have didymo, I'd probably have given them a day; but I am afraid I'd not get my boots cleaned well enough, so I do not go to Pine Creek. I do not want to spread that stuff.)

Anyhow, to get back to the thread: The pics of some of the wild trout on here display some absolutely lovely fish. Nice to see that they live in various places throughout the state.

 

[ryansheehan]

rrt wrote:
Though I have not fished for them, the big brown trout the Big Brown Trout Club stocks on Pine Creek are lovely, at least in the video clips I have seen of them being stocked. If they were put into a stream with wild browns, I doubt that they could visually be distinguished from the wild trout, except for their large size. (If Pine didn't have didymo, I'd probably have given them a day; but I am afraid I'd not get my boots cleaned well enough, so I do not go to Pine Creek. I do not want to spread that stuff.)

Anyhow, to get back to the thread: The pics of some of the wild trout on here display some absolutely lovely fish. Nice to see that they live in various places throughout the state.

I fished pine early this year and they are nice but still obviously stocked fish for the most part. I did catch a few wild smaller browns as well.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

ryansheehan wrote:

rrt wrote:
Though I have not fished for them, the big brown trout the Big Brown Trout Club stocks on Pine Creek are lovely, at least in the video clips I have seen of them being stocked. If they were put into a stream with wild browns, I doubt that they could visually be distinguished from the wild trout, except for their large size. (If Pine didn't have didymo, I'd probably have given them a day; but I am afraid I'd not get my boots cleaned well enough, so I do not go to Pine Creek. I do not want to spread that stuff.)

Anyhow, to get back to the thread: The pics of some of the wild trout on here display some absolutely lovely fish. Nice to see that they live in various places throughout the state.

I fished pine early this year and they are nice but still obviously stocked fish for the most part. I did catch a few wild smaller browns as well.

The first one I caught had me fooled. I just hadn't seen a fish looking like that before. It was in early November, and it even milted on me. Since I was in the Slate Run area, I wondered if it was a wild that came down from SR.

 

[ryansheehan]

Yup, I would say its wild, here are a couple pics of the stockers. They are nice looking but not wild.

 

[Maurice]

Heres a decent one from today around 13" for sure the pool boss smashed a yellow cahill dry. No other fish caught in this pool after he made a spectacle. Notice no red adipose...Unusual.

And a stockie a few pools later. Notice the connected black spots.

 

[Big-Bass]

The largest trout I have ever caught on a fly rod (and it also happened to be wild) was caught the other day (June 17th) and was an awesome 22" brown! Prior to that, my largest wild fish were Lake Ontario tributary browns and steelhead but I don't really count them since they were lake fish and most likely stocked. The 22" brown from the other day was a special fish for me since it was caught at a local river near where I grew up, and it was caught using a rod and reel that I was bought a few years ago and my dad thought was really nice (he has recently passed). He would have been thrilled to see this fish caught nearby my parents house and on that Orvis Hydros rod.

 

[rrt]

From the pics, I guess you can tell that the Pine Creek trout aren't wild fish. I stand corrected. Still, they're pretty nice looking fish.

 

[Nympho]

My largest this year so far caught in SE PA.

 

[pro4mance]

Raftman, here's an example of #Hijacked Thread

 

[ryansheehan]

pro4mance wrote:
Raftman, here's an example of #Hijacked Thread

And this suprises you how?

 

[Maurice]

Norm, the only one doing the hi-jacking is you so #STFD.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

ryan that's a real nice butter brownie

 

[ryansheehan]

Hook_Jaw wrote:

ryan that's a real nice butter brownie

Thanks, caught him out in western Maryland a couple years ago.