Protecting Wild Trout Populations...Via the Stockie Slam

[Swattie87]

I did something today I haven't done in several years...purposely devote a day to chasing stockies. I was fishing with a friend who wanted to creel a couple fish for the grill in the evening so we set out to fish some ATW streams. I figured if we were gonna be harvesting a few fish today, we might as well fish streams that had wild Trout in them too, and thin out the herd of stocked invaders a bit in the process.

Fishing was slow for the stockies in the morning...We landed one stocker Brookie, but were into double digits on wild Brooks and Browns...go figure. After a break for lunch we headed out to a limestoner that has a likely class A population of wild Browns, but also gets stocked with Bows. In an obvious culvert hole we quickly pulled out two of the Bows. At our last stop of the day we quickly pulled a very nice looking stocker Brown from a frog water pool. This last stream doesn't have any wild Trout in it due to a large warmwater impoundment upstream, but since we each wanted to have two fish for the grill, we creeled the Brown, giving us a slam for the day. Everything beyond that we released as per PAFF etiquette...including all of the wild Browns and Gems.

Not gonna lie, I had a real good time today doing something a little different. The stockies are on the grill stuffed with onion, garlic, butter, lemon, salt and pepper...I think I'm gonna enjoy that too.

Just a side note on the PFBC stocked Browns this year...they are the nicest Browns I have seen in recent memory. I was up in Potter County earlier this week helping my Dad's buddy get his camp opened for the season and we helped stocked Kettle and Little Kettle. All three species were stocked, but the Browns were by far the best looking of the three. Some of them had red on the adipose and very clearly defined spots as opposed to more of the blotchy oblong spot patterns of recent years. Some definitely would have required a second look to tell they were stocked. Props to the PFBC in that regard.

WARNING...BELOW IS A PICTURE OF FOUR DEAD STOCKED TROUT! (And a couple nice wild fish, that are still alive.)

 

[wildtrout2]

Sounds like a great day on the stream! That brown looks wild to me.

 

[Swattie87]

wildtrout2 wrote:
That brown looks wild to me.

You're not kidding! I thought the same at first, but there's no way given where I caught it - Middle Creek, Lancaster County not far below the dam in a classic stocked Trout frog water lie. I gave it a good hard look though before deciding to kill it. Had I caught it in a stream with wild Browns, I would have released it just on the chance of uncertainty. There was no eye-spot, the coloration on the anal fin was blurred, and the adipose although nicely colored had a significant deformity. The edges of the tail were frayed and not sharp too. All of this is tough to discern from the pic above obviously and my first thought upon landing it was could this be a wild fish?

I'm not kidding, I was astounded by how nice the Browns we put into Kettle and Little Kettle looked. They will definitely fool some people.

 

[JackM]

Yummy!

 

[Fishidiot]

Nice report. I enjoy eating some stockies this time of year.

 

[BrookieChaser]

That sounds like a good day, Swattie.

 

[PennKev]

Can we actually stop with the "gem" thing?

Seriously, I'll start spelling char with two R's if we agree to bury "gem", "gemmies", etc.

Deal?

 

[pro4mance]

Nice day, nice meal. Nothing wrong harvesting what you use (eat).

 

[afishinado]

LOL. I took a day and hit a stockie stream, myself. I didn't keep any fish, but on occasion, I will take a few stockies home for the pan.

I agree with your observation on the stocked trout of today. Not that long ago the average stocked fish were pale and small with a few whoppers thrown in as a bonus. Most of the stockies I caught (both brown and rainbow) were nicely colored, healthy looking fish which ran from 12 - 15" in size.

Sounds like a fun day.

 

[McSneek]

Maybe it's just childhood memories but I recall the stocked trout we caught when I was a kid being much nicer than today's. Consistent size and better appearance. Nicer fins, no odd shaped heads. They were mostly Browns back then.

PennKev - no. They shall always be referred to as gemmies.

 

[Chaz]

PennKev wrote:
Can we actually stop with the "gem" thing?

Seriously, I'll start spelling char with two R's if we agree to bury "gem", "gemmies", etc.

Deal?

I took Friday to go fish a gummy stream for the afternoon, it was a bad choice, they weren't hitting and I wasn't catching. The weatherman was totally wrong on the weather Friday, it never got out of the 40's and was drizzling all day, a couple of times it rained. The gems are safe for a few days. Going to camp on Weds.

 

[afishinado]

McSneek wrote:
Maybe it's just childhood memories but I recall the stocked trout we caught when I was a kid being much nicer than today's. Consistent size and better appearance. Nicer fins, no odd shaped heads. They were mostly Browns back then.

PennKev - no. They shall always be referred to as gemmies.

That's not my recollection at all. I think the quality of stocked fish has improved immensely when compared to the back-in-the-day stocked trout. Not that many years ago, the stocked trout were much smaller and at times you needed a ruler to be sure if some were even "legal." Also, all the fish were pale and silvery. You had to look closely just to determine if the fish was a brown, bow or brook.

 

[MKern]

Didn't the commish switch the food type from a fish meal pellet to an insect based pellet that would aid in better colors?

 

[troutbert]

The stocked trout in photo 1 don't look so good compared to the wild trout in photos 2 and 3.

 

[Fishidiot]

In my neck of the woods, there doesn't seem much difference in the appearance of stocked trout - perhaps they have improved a bit. There are some stockies that look like holdovers. Would be interesting if the PFBC has made dietary changes that account for the improvement. I seem to recall awhile back some discussion here on PAFF regarding the addition of paprika to trout food enhancing the coloration(?). Interesting.

Where I do see noticeable difference is in coop hatchery fish - they're often much better looking both in coloration as well as fins, body shape, etc.

 

[troutbert]

A few years ago the PFBC at Benner Spring hatchery was experimenting with adding synthesized carotenoids to trout food to improve color. Whether they've begun doing that more widely or not, I don't know.

Hoffman-LaRoche of Switzerland was the leader in this business, but sold it to a company called DSM.

Note that these are also used to color the yolk of chicken eggs and flesh.

http://www.dsm.com/markets/anh/en_US/products/products-solutions/products_solutions_tools.html

 

[afishinado]

troutbert wrote:
A few years ago the PFBC at Benner Spring hatchery was experimenting with adding synthesized carotenoids to trout food to improve color. Whether they've begun doing that more widely or not, I don't know.

Hoffman-LaRoche of Switzerland was the leader in this business, but sold it to a company called DSM.

Note that these are also used to color the yolk of chicken eggs and flesh.

http://www.dsm.com/markets/anh/en_US/products/products-solutions/products_solutions_tools.html

Here was the discussion (or notice) back in '09.

 

[jifigz]

Can someone clue me in on this "gemmies" thing. Maybe I am totally out of the loop, but I have seen that used several times and have no idea what in the world it means. Is it just general slang or is it more of an inside joke kind of slang?

 

[wildtrout2]

Yes, it's just a silly/stupid name for native brookies. It was born here.

 

[troutbert]

jifigz wrote:
Can someone clue me in on this "gemmies" thing. Maybe I am totally out of the loop, but I have seen that used several times and have no idea what in the world it means. Is it just general slang or is it more of an inside joke kind of slang?

The "gemmies" thing:

People who aren't interested in brook trout fishing sneering and taunting at people who do enjoy brook trout fishing.