Donegal creek wild rainbow?

[geebee]

judging by the spots on the tails of those wild bows and the complete lack of on that fish, i'd say it was not a bow but a golden/palomino/lightning etc.

whatever it is, a great catch. and on a dry.

 

[pcray1231]

Wild bows I have caught (NW PA) have no spots on the tail. They do, however, have them on the dorsal.

This little guy, though, doesn't have spots ANYWHERE. So forget the fins, there's no spots on the body either! Those patterns on the body are more similar to parr marks than they are traditional "spots" on rainbows.

I don't know enough about rainbow development to know, for instance, how much diet plays into how visible any spots are, or what is typical at different stages of development. Could just have a diet deficient in some nutrient, or maybe most bows have no spots until a certain age. I dunno.

I also don't know on development of goldens/palomino's, if perhaps the yellow becomes more distinct at a later age. So I'm not ruling out golden. Merely stating that the coloration doesn't strike me as being nearly strong enough to even be a golden/regular hybrid.

 

[Swattie87]

pcray - Yeah, I knew there was some technical difference between a Palomino and a Golden Rainbow, just never really bothered to know which was which as I usually try to avoid streams that have them…at least during the time frame when they're usually still in the stream anyway. For the purposes of the thread I was treating them as the same…meaning either the OP fish was entirely banana, part banana, or a regular Bow.

In regards to the spots on the tails of the fish in my post…Given where they were caught it was very likely in Foxgap's, and almost entirely certain in the case of the one I caught that these were first generation descendants from PFBC stocked Bows. Perhaps it is possible that the spots begin to fade once the wild fish get a few generations removed from the stockers?

 

[ryguyfi]

Here's info on the goldens from pfbc

http://fishandboat.com/images/pages/qa/fish/trout_golden.htm

pcray is right. I feel like I've made that same mistake in the past as well.

Someone will just have to catch that fish again in the next few months and see what he looks like!

 

[Gorosaurus]

I can't find any images of young pallies on google images to compare to the fingerling rainbows. Although I doubted it at first, every time I look at the picture it says 'golden' more and more.


Although I would imagine the odds of catching the fish again to be near-astronomical, does anyone see any markings on that fish that would be useful in later identification if, heh, lightning does strike twice?

 

[Chaz]

I say rainbow!

Typical golden trout

 

[StarvinMarvin]

with as much as the fish commission and clubs put in our waters let alone illegal releases, I really think anything is possible anymore. I would say you caught a transported golden fingerling from the high sierra mountains. just my .02