MKern
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2006
- Messages
- 3,822
I hear a lot of people ending their fishing stories with, "not bad for a stocked fish" or "fought hard for a stockie."
You got to realize that by now those stockies have been the open water for over 7 months. It only takes about 2 months for a stocked fish to transform. Its skin darkens to teh rocks ont eh bottom, fins change color, accumulates more spots, meat changes from light grey to bright red, and fights like it has something to live for. I now that this summer, some of the hardest fish for me to land were stocked bows that spent all day in the riffles. They fought longer and harder than any fish I have ever caught on Fishing Creek or Spring Creek.
It also makes me think about how last year, when pearing over a bridge by my house I spotted what looked like a trout; in a stream that should never hold such a fish (no water in the summer, little insect activity, no shade/cover) I netted the fish and it was a 11" brookie that was stocked somewhere else and swam up the stream or someone caught it and placed in the stream. Well, after about two months (now early July)I spotted the fish again in the same spot. Its fins were red and it blended in to the silty bottom. Also its head was huge and its body tappered down to its tail. then I realized it was living on the minnows in the creek and had adapted drastically to survive in this environment.
So, my rant is that stockies aren't bad to catch, and by this time of year are just as thrilling as wild fish.
You got to realize that by now those stockies have been the open water for over 7 months. It only takes about 2 months for a stocked fish to transform. Its skin darkens to teh rocks ont eh bottom, fins change color, accumulates more spots, meat changes from light grey to bright red, and fights like it has something to live for. I now that this summer, some of the hardest fish for me to land were stocked bows that spent all day in the riffles. They fought longer and harder than any fish I have ever caught on Fishing Creek or Spring Creek.
It also makes me think about how last year, when pearing over a bridge by my house I spotted what looked like a trout; in a stream that should never hold such a fish (no water in the summer, little insect activity, no shade/cover) I netted the fish and it was a 11" brookie that was stocked somewhere else and swam up the stream or someone caught it and placed in the stream. Well, after about two months (now early July)I spotted the fish again in the same spot. Its fins were red and it blended in to the silty bottom. Also its head was huge and its body tappered down to its tail. then I realized it was living on the minnows in the creek and had adapted drastically to survive in this environment.
So, my rant is that stockies aren't bad to catch, and by this time of year are just as thrilling as wild fish.
