Some Pennsylvania anglers will see stocked and wild trout together on opening day

Mikey2006 said:
Is there any chance they would eat bread? Whenever I’m spin fishing for stockies I just drift some bread under a float and I’ll catch an occasional tiny brown that looks smaller than what they would stock and isn’t very beat up. View attachment 1641229602For example this fish is perfect looking besides the messed up jaw from being caught a couple times. Spot pattern completely different than the state stocked fish and since the rod and gun isn’t sticking the conococheague it’s either a holdover or, if there is wild fish, one of those. If I didn’t catch it on bread way downstream in a large creek I would probably say wild fish.
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That’s a wild Brown. 100% confidence.

Ok, ok, 99%.
 
Swattie87 said:
That’s a wild Brown.
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Really?? That’s so cool! I never in a million years would have thought wild fish could live that far down in the conococheague, all though it makes sense because the falling springs flows in about a half mile upstream so there is cold water nearby where they can live year round. Might be more careful on my hooksets if I’m spin fishing there for stockies knowing the fish could be wild because sometimes I’m LITERALLY ripping lips. Could be fun to get some on the fly too if it turns out there is actually a wild population
 
Swattie87 said:
That’s a wild Brown. 100% confidence.

Ok, ok, 99%.
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I agree. It's a wild brown. The jaw/face looks a little weird or beat up but......
That's from the same stream, right Mikey? Then there you go. That guy was probably right. He did catch a "native" brownie..... and that's why we aren't so quick to judge, poke fun, and condemn.

Once again, wild brown trout are so, so common.
 
jifigz said:
I agree. It's a wild brown. The jaw/face looks a little weird or beat up but......
That's from the same stream, right Mikey? Then there you go. That guy was probably right. He did catch a "native" brownie..... and that's why we aren't so quick to judge, poke fun, and condemn.

Once again, wild brown trout are so, so common.
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Yes, the guy caught his fish further upstream than mine too so now I feel bad for thinking he was stupid, also feel kind of bad knowing that messed up jaw could be from me but considering there was an 18 inch palimino right where my bobber went down I wasn’t taking and chances of not hooking it
 
Mikey2006 said:
Really?? That’s so cool! I never in a million years would have thought wild fish could live that far down in the conococheague, all though it makes sense because the falling springs flows in about a half mile upstream so there is cold water nearby where they can live year round. Might be more careful on my hooksets if I’m spin fishing there for stockies knowing the fish could be wild because sometimes I’m LITERALLY ripping lips. Could be fun to get some on the fly too if it turns out there is actually a wild population
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Don't baby the browns. Fish and hookset as usual. Even keep em if you want. I think they deserve some level of respect, however, because wild trout are cool. But they ARE invasive, those guys are right. So, do what you want. Just have fun and please don't litter. ☺️
 
Mikey2006 said:
Yes, the guy caught his fish further upstream than mine too so now I feel bad for thinking he was stupid, also feel kind of bad knowing that messed up jaw could be from me but considering there was an 18 inch palimino right where my bobber went down I wasn’t taking and chances of not hooking it
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Sometimes, the best trout water is downstream, too, not up.. Just because you're way downstream means nothing. I know of several streams that suck and barely have trout, until they pick up some springs and feeders many miles down.
 
The PFBC isn't always right and sometimes they estimate it, but they have 9 miles of that stream listed as natural reproducing for trout. It likely has more than that, though.
 
jifigz said:
Don't baby the browns. Fish and hookset as usual. Even keep em if you want. I think they deserve some level of respect, however, because wild trout are cool. But they ARE invasive, those guys are right, and look. So, do what you want. Just have fun and please don't litter. ☺️
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If I’m fly fishing with barbless hooks I don’t worry about how hard I set the hook but with the 1/32 oz jighead complete with a big barb that I use when I’m fishing that creek for stockies it can do serious damage. Invasive or not, I’m just glad too see that despite all the trash everywhere and other stuff that makes the creek seem lifeless (except for the fallfish and stockies every spring) that any trout are able to survive there
 
Mikey2006 said:
Is there any chance they would eat bread? Whenever I’m spin fishing for stockies I just drift some bread under a float and I’ll catch an occasional tiny brown that looks smaller than what they would stock and isn’t very beat up. View attachment 1641229602For example this fish is perfect looking besides the messed up jaw from being caught a couple times. Spot pattern completely different than the state stocked fish and since the rod and gun isn’t sticking the conococheague it’s either a holdover or, if there is wild fish, one of those. If I didn’t catch it on bread way downstream in a large creek I would probably say wild fish.
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A trout doesn't change it's spot pattern. A holdover will have the same pattern a year after it was stocked. I've seen enough pics of trout that were caught two years in a row and they have the same spot pattern.
The trout in your pic has fairly sparse spotting, typical of a wild trout.
It has damn near perfect fins, I believe that's a wild brown. Regardless of what it was caught on.
 
jifigz said:
The PFBC isn't always right and sometimes they estimate it, but they have 9 miles of that stream listed as natural reproducing for trout. It likely has more than that, though.
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I fish the creek a lot in the upper part, (it’s actually the creek in my profile picture) and it has a population of native brookies. Not a lot but some real nice ones. Never seen or caught any wild browns when I’m targeting the brookies but I’ll have to look at the map again and see how far down the wild trout waters go. Sucks that they stock over the native population around Caledonia because it could be really really good but right now it’s barely worth fishing
 
Mikey2006 said:
I fish the creek a lot in the upper part, (it’s actually the creek in my profile picture) and it has a population of native brookies. Not a lot but some real nice ones. Never seen or caught any wild browns when I’m targeting the brookies but I’ll have to look at the map again and see how far down the wild trout waters go. Sucks that they stock over the native population around Caledonia because it could be really really good but right now it’s barely worth fishing
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Browns can really be hard to wrangle out of a mixed population stream until conditions are right, so to speak. They could be there and you might never catch them until one day and then, bam, tons of browns.

Also, trout can hide very, very well. Just because you don't see fish doesn't mean they aren't there.. Just remember that.
 
jifigz said:
Browns can really be hard to wrangle out of a mixed population stream until conditions are right, so to speak. They could be there and you might never catch them until one day and then, bam, tons of browns.

Also, trout can hide very, very well. Just because you don't see fish doesn't mean they aren't there.. Just remember that.
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While based on what everyone is saying here I think there could be a wild brown population further down, I’ve never heard of anyone catching browns there. I’ve fished other creeks in the area and know about others such as carbaugh run, Rocky Mountain creek, raccoon creek, and long pine run and all of them are brookies only from what me and other people I know have found. Again, all of those creeks are connected but the state stocks a bunch of rainbows in carbaugh and then more fish are stocked in a kids fishing area right near where the bigger of those streams connect at so they can’t benefit from it and as a result are not very good fisheries. I sure hope there isn’t browns there as it would limit the brookies even more
 
jifigz said:
Also, trout can hide very, very well. Just because you don't see fish doesn't mean they aren't there.. Just remember that.
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Of the wild brown trout streams I fish, I almost never see them until I catch one, or spook one.
 
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Mikey2006 said:
I’d be willing to bet there isn’t wild browns where I was fishing, and the guy was using powerbait. I’ve never heard of wild trout eating powerbait but if someone here can testify that it’s possible then maybe. It was most likely a really good looking fish or a holdover. If there is wild browns in there cool as long as they don’t get too far upstream and into the Brookie population…
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Wild browns will definitely eat powerbait. My dad has caught plenty of them when I take him on wild trout streams. He doesn’t fly fish but he will punch barbs down, use larger hooks hooks etc to avoid them swallowing bait.
 
HopBack said:
Wild browns will definitely eat powerbait. My dad has caught plenty of them when I take him on wild trout streams. He doesn’t fly fish but he will punch barbs down, use larger hooks hooks etc to avoid them swallowing bait.
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They also eat bread! I had a wild BT stream behind my apartment for years and one of the other tenants took to feeding bread to wild BT. What a sad sight to see them acting almost like hatchery fish.
 
Mike said:
They also eat bread! I had a wild BT stream behind my apartment for years and one of the other tenants took to feeding bread to wild BT. What a sad sight to see them acting almost like hatchery fish.
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Falling springs delayed harvest behind McDonald’s the stocked (and wild) trout eat chicken nuggets, I talked to someone there last year and they were feeding them
 
Mikey2006 said:
Is there any chance they would eat bread? Whenever I’m spin fishing for stockies I just drift some bread under a float and I’ll catch an occasional tiny brown that looks smaller than what they would stock and isn’t very beat up. View attachment 1641229602For example this fish is perfect looking besides the messed up jaw from being caught a couple times. Spot pattern completely different than the state stocked fish and since the rod and gun isn’t sticking the conococheague it’s either a holdover or, if there is wild fish, one of those. If I didn’t catch it on bread way downstream in a large creek I would probably say wild fish.
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That is a wild brown.
 
krayfish2 said:
This thread ranks second to East Palestine OH for worst derailment of 2023.
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Give it time, we're only a quarter of the way into the year, and recently there are stories of train derailments nearly every day.
 
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