Native ID

[thesmayway]

What say you, native? Caught in an unstocked wild brookie stream 1.4 miles from the confluence with a stream known to also hold natives but is stocked with Browns and rainbows. Sorry for the grass shot, this thing surprised the crap out of me. I ditched the net at the truck and was fishing with a 5'9" 3wt glass rod fully expecting the typical 6" native. It's tail has a chunk missing, but it didn't looked rubbed, it looked bitten. Would be by far my largest wild brookie if it is....

 

[ryansheehan]

Stocker, low on color spots and has deformed gill plates. Nice fish either way.

 

[sarce]

I vote wild. The fins are flawless aside from the bitten tail. Colors look pretty damn good to me, I've caught hundreds of wild brookies with far less color. Helps that there is no obvious potential stocking source.

The question I have though is how a wild brookie would get that large in a stream that you describe as one where you were expecting 6" fish. Was it in a deep plunge pool, or near overhead cover (something big enough to last a few years, i.e. tree roots or a large rock slabs)? If it came out of a spot where you can imagine a fish surviving several years while also having easy access to food, I'd be more confident it is a wild fish.

Surely will get a range of opinions here...

 

[wildtrout2]

I'm going with stocked brookie for three reasons. It being so much larger than the norm for the stream you were fishing, the deformed gill plate, and the fact that there's a confluence with a known stocked stream. Still a great brook trout!

I was fishing a remote unstocked Class A stream a number of years ago, when I caught and released what I believed to be my biggest (13") wild brook trout at the time. I was real pleased with myself until I caught another one downstream about the same size. I was bummed, because you will never catch 2 natives @ 13" from the same stream on the same day in Pa. Some how somebody put them in there. My bubble was burst. 🙂

 

[thesmayway]

It was holding in the deepest spot I've seen in this stream, probably 3-4 feet deep and an undercut bank. I've actually never fished it before but I cross it often to hunt and always see fish so I figured why Not. So the little ones I always spook when I cross was my general size basis. Wildtrout, maybe youre just that good, I'm sure it's not impossible

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Stocked

 

[Mike]

Can't count on ST not having been stocked based on the stocking schedule. ST may have been substituted for RT in 2017 in a number of cases, especially inseason, as some hatcheries were short on RT. Short opercle is suggestive of a stockie, as I have not seen that on a wild fish.

 

[troutbert]

What causes the short operculum (gill cover) in some hatchery trout?

A genetic trait?

Physical damage? But if so, how does that happen?

A flaw caused by nutritional deficiencies?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

A flaw caused by genetic deficiencies?

Fixed. Pretty sure that is the answer

 

[troutbert]

Doing some Googling I found this:

Opercular shortening is a commonly observed anomaly in Atlantic salmon, and recently, Taylor et al. (2012) suggested that it is not a real skeletal anomaly.

Its occurrence has been explained by environmental conditions influencing first feeding triggering abnormal behaviour and aggressiveness and leading to damage of the opercular tissues by fish biting each other (Sutterlin et al. 1987; MacLean 1999; Sadler et al. 2001; Kazlauskiene, Leliuna & Kesminas 2006; Taylor et al. 2012; Amoroso et al. 2016).

 

[trike23]

I would say stocked BUT. Recently fishing the run in boiling springs (if the run is spot burning your all crazy) I have caught some absolutly BEAUTIFUL stocked brookies. So I have no clue anymore.

 

[ryansheehan]

trike23 wrote:
I would say stocked BUT. Recently fishing the run in boiling springs (if the run is spot burning your all crazy) I have caught some absolutly BEAUTIFUL stocked brookies. So I have no clue anymore.

Spot burner!!!!! 🙂

 

[RCFetter]

If the fish have "damage of the opercular tissues " it's not spot burning even if there was spot burning intent.

 

[ryansheehan]

He said no damage to the opercular tissue, that the fish were beautiful, therefore intent is proven, judges say......... spot burner!!!!!!!! Trike I'm not sure you and I have ever spoken so I hope you know I'm joking you can never be sure when communicating over text.

 

[sarce]

I'd say explore that stream some more and see if you turn up any nice wild fish say 9-10" (anything that could make that fish seem less freakishly large) or any other large brookies that are more obviously stocked. If the gill cover can be damaged by other fish biting, it sounds like it COULD happen to a wild fish. Maybe even the same encounter that led to the tail being bitten. IDK I could really go either way without knowing more about the stream and what the population is like. My first impression was wild but I am far in the minority here.

 

[sarce]

How did it fight?

 

[RCFetter]

ryansheehan wrote:
He said no damage to the opercular tissue, that the fish were beautiful, therefore intent is proven, judges say......... spot burner!!!!!!!! Trike I'm not sure you and I have ever spoken so I hope you know I'm joking you can never be sure when communicating over text.

Yes I'm joking and referring to the FBI dropping charges when there is no criminal intent. I continue to forget to use "lol"

Back on subject and humor: this forum needs a special tribunal to adjudicate issues of intent: spot burning; stocked vs wild vs native; handling of trout for the camera.

 

[ryansheehan]

RCFetter wrote:

ryansheehan wrote:
He said no damage to the opercular tissue, that the fish were beautiful, therefore intent is proven, judges say......... spot burner!!!!!!!! Trike I'm not sure you and I have ever spoken so I hope you know I'm joking you can never be sure when communicating over text.

Yes I'm joking and referring to the FBI dropping charges when there is no criminal intent. I continue to forget to use "lol"

Back on subject and humor: this forum needs a special tribunal to adjudicate issues of intent: spot burning; stocked vs wild vs native; handling of trout for the camera.

I like it!

 

[pcray1231]

Stocked. Likely holdover.

Aside from chunk, tail is abraded. Line between white and black on anal fin is bumpy, not straight. The damaged gill cover. Size is about right for a holdover stocked fish. And holdover explains the good color just fine.

Could be wrong, but that's just my opinion, and it's a tweener, there's identifiers that point to wild too. The location, though a holdover can be miles and miles from "home". The spot pattern is actually more typical of a native strain. And that black/white line on the anal isn't all that bad, worse than typical for wild but better than typical for stocked. So my call is with the caveat that it's not an open shut case either way.

At the very least, guessing he's been in the stream at least since fall, if not last spring.

 

[Dave_W]

Not sure on this one.
One indicator that suggests wild to me is the deep red color of the fins. Stocked STs typically have fins in the orange range. The beat up tail could be spawning.

Whatever the case, a very nice fish indeed.