Bizarre looking brookie

[tstooge26]

I caught this fish today on a small trib in south west pa. Prob hard to tell from the pic but his spines was completely twisted, it looked like an S...what could have caused this and do you think he wil survive...he ate a foam beetle on top

 

[redietz]

Could be whirling disease.

 

[salmonoid]

Don't know what caused it but I've caught a brown on a central PA stream that had a similar deformity. I seem to recall another brookie posted on here somewhere, possibly even from SW PA. Maybe it was the same fish?

This one was from a few years ago, but maybe that is the one I was thinking of and the years have just flown by.

 

[Dave_W]

It's not all that uncommon to see a fish with a spine curvature.

This guy appears to be fully grown and obviously able to feed on the surface so I'd guess he could probably survive fine.

 

[Swattie87]

Caught one in Monroe County a few years ago. It was in a high biomass Class A, so it seems it was able to compete for food just fine. Took a dry and fought like a normal fish.

 

[troutbert]

It could be damage from electrofishing, from a predator, or birth defect.

 

[redietz]

Google whirling disease, and click on "images". You'll all sorts of trout that look just like that. This is potentially something to worry about, especially if you start catching more in that stream that look like that.

I'm not saying that there aren't other possible causes.

 

[Bamboozle]

I once sent a photo of a "deformed" trout to the Regional Fisheries Biologist for the region where I caught it.

His comment to me was it looked like scoliosis (which fish get).

You may want to do the same.

 

[pabrookie94]

When I electrofish we've had some damage similar. I've not seen two "kinks" but I have seen one when it breaks their spine...

 

[tstooge26]

I appreciate the info...I have only just found this stream and I have only fished it twice, surprisingly a good population and I have caught no others like that

Question though if I start to catch multiple like like should I alert the fish commission

 

[moon1284]

Looks like whirling disease to me, but it's usually a problem with rainbows more so than bt ir st.

 

[redietz]

moon1284 wrote:
Looks like whirling disease to me, but it's usually a problem with rainbows more so than bt ir st.

All trout can get whirling disease. Rainbows are just more likely to die of it.

 

[FarmerDave]

tstooge26 wrote:

Question though if I start to catch multiple like like should I alert the fish commission

If it were me, I probably would. But not for just 1. 2 or 3 different ones on the same trip? Yea, I think I would.

It certainly wouldn't hurt.

 

[pcray1231]

The spine thing is a symptom of whirling disease. A symptom. But just like stomach cancer or the flu can both make you vomit, multiple diseases can cause the same symptom. Could be another illness, birth defect, or just an injury.

As was said, if there are multiple fish in the same waterway or area I'd let someone know ASAP. If it's just one, I wouldn't worry too much.