Browns with lines. Common on stocked fish?

[Wildfish]

I haven't been around here much since I left for Kentucky. When I get back I try to fit some familiar streams (Letort, Hay, Big Spring, Tully). Since the Tully was blown out I went to Hay Creek and found a bunch of willing fish. Lots of stocked rainbows, many aggressive fingerlings (who went almost exclusively for my indicator), nice wild browns. And then this guy. I'm guessing a stocked brown with weird lines? He was in much better shape than the stock rainbows. Could be mistaken for wild. And when I saw the top of the tail I thought tiger. But he looks nothing like tigers I've seen online. Can anyone solve this puzzle?

 

[salmonoid]

Run-of-the-mill stocked brown. No way it could be mistaken for a wild fish..

 

[Wildfish]

Thanks. I don't usually fish for stocked browns so I don't see them often. When I say "could be mistaken" I mean he was not out of shape. All the rainbows were like underfed wet rags.

 

[HopBack]

That's just what the PAFBC stocked browns look like. Very ugly trout. We sometimes refer to it a the digi-brown pattern. I believe it was previously discussed on here and the local fisheries biologist said that it was due to selective breeding at the hatchery.

 

[Wildfish]

Digi brown covers it well, thanks. They're ugly, but not as ugly as those beat up bows

 

[acesedgley]

When did you do this fishing on Hay Creek? I live in Birdsboro and that creek has not looked that clear to me in the last few days.

 

[Wildfish]

Yesterday. Water was great. Turbid but not too high. Clear enough to see fish. Some were rising

 

[jifigz]

Yep that is a definite stocked brown trout. I've seen LOTS of fish with those same ugly markings but hey, catching those fish is better than catching no fish. On the other hand, I've also seen stocked browns with much more realistic and colorful spot patterns. They still aren't as pretty as wild browns, but they definitely look better than the "digi-browns."

 

[troutbert]

PFBC stocked browns in the past typically had those sorts of irregular "scrawling" markings rather than round spots.

But they didn't typically have those types of lines. Those line markings have become more common in recent years.

I'm guessing they probably "refreshed" their hatchery brown trout genetics by bringing in some browns from other sources.

 

[Mike]

Flow and muddier than clearer water colors yesterday (Tue) were absolutely perfect in much of SE Pa for having "big days" in terms of catch on wild and stocked streams. I almost wrote about it here last night, but figured I'd be wasting my breath, given the often cold reception given to stocked trout and summer trout fishing here. The same persisted today on some streams, but they are now much clearer. I suspect that they may be clear by tomorrow if no additional t-storms arrive. Water temps were in the mid-sixties on streams that we surveyed and stocked trout in one that has been a warm, unstocked trib to Maiden Ck for years looked great...both Browns and rainbows. They were a plump as when stocked months ago in Maiden.

This is a very good year to check out your local stocked trout streams in the SE, NE, SC, and NC. There are probably a lot of stockies in some, as evidenced by this report on Hay, which gets pounded in spring (yet the fish remain and it isn't managed with special regs. Imagine that.) Apparently, they squeaked through the low flow, very warm period in late June/early July in a number of waters in the SE and probably elsewhere. With these spring-like flows and cool water temps it is a new season all over again,,at least in the short term.

 

[troutwilleatflies]

So much for those "ideal" conditions Mike,every stream in the Lehigh Valley is flooding and more rain today.....uuuugh!

 

[klingy]

Speaking of browns with lines, caught this guy the other day. Thought his spotting was unique. Don't think he was stocked though.

 

[wildtrout2]

It's the epitome of a wild brown. Love the line of spots.

 

[wbranch]

Is this a digi brown?

 

[tjsingle]

wbranch wrote:
Is this a digi brown?

Tiger trout, brook-brown hybrid IMO

 

[tjsingle]

klingy wrote:
Speaking of browns with lines, caught this guy the other day. Thought his spotting was unique. Don't think he was stocked though.

Looks wild to me. I’ve seen that on a couple of wild browns I’ve caught but more so two combined red spots.

 

[Fredrick]

The stocked fish around me dont look nothing like that , but I like the coloring on that fish.

 

[Prospector]

Several have commented about the initial picture showing a typical stocked brown. Where I fish in NW & NC PA I have not run across any that look like that. Do you know which hatchery the browns with lines come from?

 

[jifigz]

The three hatcheries that provide trout to my county are Huntsdale, Tylersville, and Benner Spring. I have definitely seen the ugly digi-browns here in my area but like I said I've also seen pretty good looking stocked browns too. So, at least one of those must supply some of those fish but I'm guessing that the ugly pattern is evident in multiple hatcheries.

 

[FarmerDave]

About the photo in the OP.

The lines make it look fast, like racing stripes on a Yugo.