Stocked or Wild?

[thedude1534]

Dicided to take a break from fishing wilds and wend to Black Moshannon Creek in Centre County today because it was stocked yesterday. Guess I wanted to not think about what fly to use to catch fish for the afternoon.

Anyway, I caught a bunch of brook trout in this one calm pool next to some riffles. A few of them obviously looked stocked, but I had several in there that had no washout whatsoever, and looked very much wild (bright orange belly, bright yellow and red spots, red fins with bright white tips). I also got a 17" tiger trout that had jaws and a humped back very "salmon-like". I have caught wilds in Black Moshannon before, but they were the more typical 8" brookies and were way away from where any fish are stocked.

Although some of these brookies were well coloured, they were ranging between 12-15", more like a stockies size, and I caught them right next to some stocked brookies and browns. I also saw many of the brookies migrating upstream through the riffles.

I guess my question is, do stocked trout get more "wild" colors in the fall due to spawning, and will they still instictively migrate to spawn. Considering the place I caught these fish, I refuse to believe they're wild, but I can't get over the fact that I've never seen stocked brookies that beautifully colored.

 

[Maurice]

Some stocked brookies can exhixit tremendous coloration during the fall months. As for the movement, brookies at least in our watershed never stay put. We stocked 5,000 of them in 2005 and I think I caught 3. We don't know where they go...I think they are put off by water chemistry differences from where they were raised moreso than browns and bows.

 

[Squaretail]

Catching them mostly from the same pool does not sound native-like at all. The natives will usually run off during the first couple fights or they'll already be gone from the stockies runnin' them off.
I have witnessed stockies color up pretty good and go through spawn as well.
Anything is possible but a 12" native brookie is like a 24" wild brownie. And they are usually caught in our little "secret places" that take a hour or 2 hike to get to and have never been stocked.
Next time you go why not take a camera? I'd like to see them.

 

[thedude1534]

Thanks for the inputs, I thought from the get-go that there was no way they could be wild, but I had to be sure.

Only camera I have is my camera phone, and I don't have the means to transmit pics from that to my computer. The closest reference I could think of is that these brookies looked almost as good as the one sal has (or used to have) on his signature.

 

[Buggy]

Only camera I have is my camera phone, and I don't have the means to transmit pics from that to my computer

thedude1534,

Send a picture message to your email address. Instead of entering a phone number in the "send to" space enter your email address.

 

[NoMoreCornChuckin]

Hey, theDude, did you grow up in State College? I did, just wondering if I might know you or someone in your family. I don't recognize you from your photo, but we DO change over the years!