C&R Works Well

[Alnitak]

Yesterday a friend of mine went out fishing at a SEPA brook trout stream we've both fished over the last 3+ years. For some reason I thought that a fish he posted looked familiar--odd I know as I've no doubt caught hundreds of brook trout on that stream. Anyway, I decided to look and see if I had a photo of the same fish and sure enough, I did. My photo was was taken on August 14, 2014, seventeen months ago. The brookie has grown since then and the parr marks have faded, but I was impressed to see it recaptured after such a relatively long time for a brook trout--its a survivor! Maybe I or my friend will see it again in the future--we both have caught brookies up to 12" on this stream.

Jeff

 

[turkey]

That's a good looking fish.

 

[Shaner]

One of my favorite streams

 

[Alnitak]

turkey wrote:
That's a good looking fish.

Yeah, looking at it now I can see why both of us chose to take a snapshot and why I remembered it--great colors and nice spot pattern, and a good size both times.

Jeff

 

[724flyfishing]

Off topic a little but do they generally getting darker and more pronounced red on the fins the older they get? Reason I ask is I caught a real nice darker colored one like the second picture a few weeks ago. The rest I caught in that stream were normal brookie coloration. Nice fish you guys caught btw!

 

[Shaner]

Normally they get dark after spawn colors over winter. I got a nice dark with almost red belly last winter. With the warmer season this year I didn't see any real dark ones yet.

 

[Millsertime]

I'm not saying they aren't the same fish but what are you looking at to make that determination and more importantly how many fishermen routinely compare marks on fish they photograph to see if it's a repeat fish?

 

[sarce]

That's awesome. Amazing that you picked up on it. The pec fin is even pointing to the same big yellow spot both times.

When it comes to larger brookies (the ones I would actually have photos to compare) I don't think I've ever caught the same one twice, but I have caught one that another board member caught a few weeks before I did.

Edit to above: I did once, but it was the only brookie I've ever seen in that stream, so it was easy for me to know it could be the same fish.

I don't typically look closely at photos to see, but some fish come from unique pools or are large fish and that usually will trigger me to say hmmmm...

 

[HopBack]

Only one place in SE PA that I know of where the brook trout are that healthy and have such brilliant red markings. I believe it is because of the abundance of crayfish in the stream.

 

[pcray1231]

I'm not saying they aren't the same fish but what are you looking at to make that determination and more importantly how many fishermen routinely compare marks on fish they photograph to see if it's a repeat fish?

I do it semi-routinely and have found re-catches quite often.

He's looking at spot patterns. Yes, I concur, it's the same fish, with zero doubt about it.

Off topic a little but do they generally getting darker and more pronounced red on the fins the older they get?

No, it's not about age. Bout the only thing with age is the parr marks decrease in intensity.

Spawning colors (fall through winter) will produce a lot more red overall, and this is especially true with males.

Other than that, it's diet and environment. That said, as fish get older and bigger, diet and environment can both change. So it may correlate with age, and indirectly be caused by it, but age isn't the immediate cause.

Spot patterns don't change.

 

[Swattie87]

Millsertime wrote:
I'm not saying they aren't the same fish but what are you looking at to make that determination and more importantly how many fishermen routinely compare marks on fish they photograph to see if it's a repeat fish?

The two pictures above are definitely the same fish, 100% certainty. Look at the spot pattern. The coloration of a fish can change over time, but its spot pattern is like a fingerprint. Just a few of the things I compared to come to that conclusion:

1. The top two rows of red spots are perfectly parallel and in the same orientation in both pictures. This is somewhat unique and stands out to me. There is one single red spot in between those two parallel rows, just above the lateral line and about in the middle of the fish length wise.
2. Line of four red spots lower on the fish starting just behind the pectoral fin and angling slightly upward as you move back.
3. Yellow spot with an odd red marking in it, below the adipose fin.

I compare my photos a good bit. I’m not sure exactly, but I’ll bet I have a total of 10 or so fish that I know I’ve caught twice, or I’ve caught once and someone has caught once. I’ve even recognized a few fish from posts on PAFF. All were within the same stream the second time as they were the first…most actually in the same very spot, but a few moved…up to a few hundred yards in one case.

When I download my photos after an outing, I put them into a folder with all my other photos from that stream. I usually take a minute to compare any of the memorable fish to fish from prior outings to see if any are a match. My guess is there’s some in my photo folders that I’ve caught twice, and haven’t even identified as such. I think this likely happens way more than we realize. I usually try to take pictures of my fish all in the same orientation, holding them in my left hand (right hand operating the camera – I’m right handed) with their tail toward my wrist and head toward my fingertips. This ensures I get a picture of the same side of the fish each time.

 

[Chaz]

724flyfishing wrote:
Off topic a little but do they generally getting darker and more pronounced red on the fins the older they get? Reason I ask is I caught a real nice darker colored one like the second picture a few weeks ago. The rest I caught in that stream were normal brookie coloration. Nice fish you guys caught btw!

To answer your question, no!
Trout will change color quite rapidly if they are moved to a place that has very different background colors. It is also related to diet and time of the year. By the end of summer and prior to the spawning season during the fall they get more colorful, in part as a function of physical changes caused during the spawning process and in part because they have been eating a varied diet all spring and summer.
I once caught a brookie that was laying partly in the sun and partly in the shade over a bottom covered by fallen leaves of different colors. It was a very strong looking coloration of a brookie. The colors in the picture are fairly normal.
As trout mature they gain more color.

 

[salmonoid]

Millsertime wrote:
I'm not saying they aren't the same fish but what are you looking at to make that determination and more importantly how many fishermen routinely compare marks on fish they photograph to see if it's a repeat fish?

I'm not sure that I do it routinely but if a fish that someone else posts looks familiar, or has something unique about it (i.e. I know the stream, or it's a tiger trout, or something like that), or if I happen to catch a fish at exactly the same spot like three times in 17 months, I compare the spots. I'm sure there are a number of fish I miss each year, but C&R does work.

 

[SteveG]

As far as the darker coloration, they also have the ability to change color to some degree. Sometimes you catch fish on a shade line, and one side is darker than the other.

 

[Fishidiot]

It's pretty common in my experience (catching the same fish).

One year I caught the same 19" brown in Spring Creek seven times over three months. Another large brown in Falling Springs was caught three different times by three different forum members over three consecutive years. I think at least one wild tiger has been caught by different forum members as well.
In fact, I think this happens a lot more than we're generally aware of.

Regarding colors, my experience is that there is little rhyme or reason for the changing colors of a fish (oftentimes, the camera or ambient light can really affect this). Generally, trout are darker and brighter colored in the fall and I think that browns from forested freestoners tend to have deeper and more rich coloration than spring creek fish. But these are very general and unscientific observations on my part.

 

[Alnitak]

I will look through my photos when I see one I think looks familiar and I do often find fish I have "recaught" but this is the longest time period between captures for me, and given the relatively short lifespan of wild brook trout, pretty cool to see its survived and thrived over the last two years.

I did once catch a wild brown in a Lancaster County stream almost one year after the first time I caught it; it had grown nearly four inches in that time. That is a very productive stream!

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

Nice! I caught a brown earlier this year about 15" which had a large dent in it's back, likely from a heron taking a bite. 6 weeks later I caught it again, same fly, about 100 yds down stream. Released again! It made me wonder how many times I catch the same fish in some of my favorite streams. I know of at least once other brown I caught 6 months later, and it was one of the larger wilds I had ever caught to boot! It is the trout in my avi now that I think about it. hahaha.

 

[pcray1231]

browns from forested freestoners tend to have deeper and more rich coloration than spring creek fish. But these are very general and unscientific observations on my part.

Most definitely! Freestone browns can just be amazing. I only ever see that butter color and crystal clear spot definition in freestoners.

Although, I've only ever seen the "sparse" spot pattern on browns in limestoners. The below are extreme examples of each, not claiming this to be "normal" in either case.

 

[salmonoid]

Pat,

Interesting that in your first picture, it looks like the stones in the background are limestone

I have some fish I've caught in limestoners that are butter yellow and have pretty pronounced spots, but I believe that in limestoners, the food sources are so diverse that the fishes' diet is not overloaded with say crayfish, like they might be in freestoners. I also have caught some fish with sparse spot patterns from freestoners, but I think your generalizations are correct.

What I have rarely seen is a sparse spotted brown with butter belly.

 

[pcray1231]

salmonoid,

Nope. Well, they may be limestone boulders, not sure. Bedrock is mostly slate and shale.

It's in Crawford County with decent alkalinity for a freestoner, but decidedly a freestoner, and not a limestoner. It was, however, from a bridge hole and those stones may be human placed as part of the bridge support, so if they are limestone, they were put there by a construction crew.

The second pic is Penns Creek, and that's a sizable fish, albeit not a "super trophy". For reference, when I hold my hand like that, it's about 5" from my thumb to my pinky. My estimate was 16-18, though I didn't measure.