Native ID

[Swattie87]

Yeah, it's a tweener based on physical appearance for the reasons already noted. Stocked Brookies are usually very easy to tell they're stocked and not many of them holdover as they typically are very easily caught. They're often caught before the Browns or Rainbows they're stocked with in the Spring...Brookie feeding behavior genetics probably to blame there. In the event it was stocked, this one doesn't look like the typical stocked Brookie, that's for sure. I'd say overall, it leans slightly wild in my mind on appearance alone, although size is somewhat precluding of a wild fish.

How long actually was it? Not saying wild Brookies can't get that big in a small stream, but it's very rare. I've probably caught a couple thousand small freestone wild Brookies in PA. I have one at 13", one at 11", and probably only a dozen or so at an honest 10".

Trump card on borderline ones IMO is location. Yeah stocked fish have fins (usually), can swim (usually), and can move (usually), or can be caught elsewhere and moved in a bucket, but given where it was caught, a wild fish is far more likely than a stocked one from the OP's description.

Overall vote - Wild with 70% confidence.

 

[FarmerDave]

Mike wrote:
... Short opercle is suggestive of a stockie, as I have not seen that on a wild fish.

I have, many times.

Take that with a grain of salt since I can't see the actual picture, so I am basing it only on description only.

I used to see this fairly often in very small freestone streams in NWPA where general fertility is quite low, and likely somewhat acidic streams. The fish would usually also have signs of stunted growth. Big head, skinny body, and short gill plate to the point tips of gills are exposed.

 

[salmonoid]

Stocker, but possibly from a club stocking, because the fins are in nice shape (and those are the only indicators that would score on the wild side for me). The stocked brookies have been showing more color and it is common for the red spots and blue halos to show up on them, but the stockers always seem to have a higher percentage of yellow spots. They still have an overall duller or paler silver sheen to them though. Gill plate damage also scores on the stocker side. The 1.4 miles from the nearest stocked stream also points to a potential source and it's not uncommon for a stray ST to show up in a tank of RT or BT, or as Mike noted, sometimes wholesale substitutions occur for species, based on hatchery availability.

Bottom line is that stocked brook trout have the tendency to show up everywhere. It has been my experience that they move a great deal. And they always tend to quicken the heart rate when you hook one, because you think you've caught a monster wild fish. But that fades when you land the fish and the stocker features, however much the fish tries to disguise them, emerge..

 

[thesmayway]

My buddy works at the nearest private hatchery and if it was club or privately stocked it would have likely come from them. He has a name for every fish in the hatchery and he does not recognize the fish so there is 0% chance it was from them… All kidding aside, he did say that it does not have the same color patterns as the brookies they raise. Still not definitive, but he leaned towards wild.

I did not measure it in my rush to get it out of the grass and into the water. But I did lay a tape down in the spot it was lying to try and get an idea. It was 12-14”. You can gather that from my hand in the picture. Figure my hand is about 4” across on the conservative side.

I know stocked brookies will run pretty far. We’ve caught some way down stream of the last stocking point until they hit a beaver dam and all pile up. My thought was that it could have moved up into this stream for thermal refuge and got big by spending time in the larger river.

Here may be the spoiler though… on my next cast about 45 feet further upstream with the Royal Wulf I had a take that started burning drag out of my little Pfleuger reel. In an instant I put pressure on the line it broke my 5x tippet. Possibly a brown, possibly a bigger stocker, or hopefully my thermal refuge idea is true and it was a couple bigger brooks that came up from the bigger creek to hang out in this deep hole…

 

[thesmayway]

 

[Swattie87]

That fish that broke off the 5x had to be pretty good. I think the smallest fish I’ve had successfully break a solid knot with 5x have all been 15” or bigger, and generally on bigger water where they have room to move and stronger current helping them put pressure on the line.

Go back and catch that other fish and find out! If there ends up being another stocker in there, I agree that it would certainly increase the likelihood your Brookie is stocked too.

Either way, don’t let it take away from the fish though…IF it is stocked, it’s probably the nicest looking stocked Brookie I’ve seen in PA waters, and clearly had figured out life in the stream. I caught an 11”er in upper Kettle (a mile or so above the highest stocking point) a couple Falls ago that had me taking a good look, but if stocked, yours was better looking and a tougher call than that one.

 

[sarce]

I am still leaning wild - but I could also see it possibly being a stocker that has been in the stream at least since last spring. No need for thermal refuge since last summer so if that's the case, the fish is older than that.

IMO, the spots and overall body coloration, dark line around the lower jaw, and absolutely perfect dorsal fin point to a wild fish. The little dent in the anal fin reminds me of the big wild fish that come out of Big Spring. Very interesting about the other large fish that got away - if you suspect it was a big old brown, head back with a big streamer and tippet that it can't break (0 or 1X).