Darby Creek

[ISK]

What is this? Should'i've let it back in the water?

and after some effort i got the stocker(s) to take a #16 zebra midge - interesting colors, almost like a spotted cutthroat

 

[redietz]

Male common shiner in breeding colors, I believe:

 

[mute]

From a small wild brownie stream this past weekend

 

[Fishingyogi]

Thanks for sharing. I saw those fish in there last week. Never saw the red on the fin before.

 

[Mike]

The first fish is a male common shiner in spawning colors and mute’s fish is a male fallfish in spawning colors. Both are naturally occurring fish in Pa and are indicative of marginal to warm summer water temps. Fallfish in particular may overlap a bit with the lower longitudinal end of a stream’s wild brown trout population in summer. Common shiners may do so as well, but to a lesser degree and in most cases they appear to overlap a bit in spring because brown trout have dropped back, but in summer not so much if at all. A good example of overlap between fallfish and wild browns/fingerling stocked browns is in the Schuylkill R in Schuylkill Haven, but it’s pretty common elsewhere as well. Common shiners seasonally (spring) overlap with wild brown trout in the stocked section of Perkiomen Ck untill the wild browns move upstream or into tribs as that part of the Perk heats up and they also overlap on the Little Manatawny Ck in Oley, Berks Co. to name two examples. Ltl Manatawny continues to develop a wild BT population over more of its length so this overlap may disappear from that location since the stream appears to be getting colder.

Young fallfish should be good forage for browns and the young of common shiners and fallfish are often mistaken for each other in the field by neophyte biologists. But note the very sharply defined diamond-like scales on the great demo pic of the common shiner.