Valley creek Tiger trout wild or stocked?

Without seeing an eye spot on the brown, I would say holdover based on the patterns, but if you saw an eye spot, there is a variety of wild fish looks in that crick. I would say the tiger is stocked. However, and you might want Mike to confirm, there is a Skuke trib in Montgo with brookies in it, though not a fishable population. So, basically, anything is possible! Good fish for Valley!
 
Nymph wrist,

Do you consider a blue eye spot to be a wild fish characteristic exclusively? I am asking because another river i fish frequently i have caught some fish that werent super colored up but had that blue eye spot. I am not sure if they are wild or stocked. Can stockies develop that blue eye spot?

Thanks
 
Nymph-wristed,
there was a distinctive blue spot on his gill plate, but virtually no red.
 
Thanks for the picture update. Fantastic fish!
 
I caught a few stocked brown trout around 8in last week that I presume came from a coop stocking as the stream is not stocked by pfbc. The colors were virtually identical to a wild fish, including a faint eye spot. However, the pectoral fins were much smaller than they should have been and were rounded off as well as damage to the anal and causal fins. I wish I would have taken a picture.

Many of the co-op hatcheries are using a higher quality food called bio-origen and it really brings out the Reds and orange in fish
I believe some pfbc hatcheries are using this for the brood fish stocked in keystone select section, this is where the vibrant rainbows are coming from.

I guess I say this to say that I am beginning to lose confidence in the eye spot as a 100% indicator of a wild fish.
 
lycoflyfisher wrote:
I caught a few stocked brown trout around 8in last week that I presume came from a coop stocking as the stream is not stocked by pfbc. The colors were virtually identical to a wild fish, including a faint eye spot. However, the pectoral fins were much smaller than they should have been and were rounded off as well as damage to the anal and causal fins. I wish I would have taken a picture.

Many of the co-op hatcheries are using a higher quality food called bio-origen and it really brings out the Reds and orange in fish
I believe some pfbc hatcheries are using this for the brood fish stocked in keystone select section, this is where the vibrant rainbows are coming from.

.
Click to expand...

The addition of pigments called carotenoids to fish food has become common in aquaculture.

This is widely done in the salmon farming industry to create the deep red-orange color in the flesh of the fish, similar to the wild salmon.

For trout also, the carotenoids deepen the color of the flesh. But also create more colors on the skin of the fish.

So, trout can be raised in a hatchery with colors much like those of wild trout.
 
Brown is wild and the Tiger is obviously stocked and found its way to Valley Cr

15-20 yrs ago (?), Valley use to get a bunch of large wild trout that would run up from the Schuylkill. This usually started in mid-May and coincided with the Sulphur hatch. The fish use to try to jump the dam/falls like salmon. It was an impressive sight. After one of the Hurricanes (I cant recall the name) that pretty much flushed Valley Creek, that run of wild brown trout and sulphur hatch dwindled significantly to almost non-existent.

Neat to see what may be a return of those Schuylkill run fish.
 
Nice fish! I did not know the Schuylkill held trout that far down? I'm fairly new to the area, and haven't gotten out much besides on Valley above the dam. I crossed the Skook in Phoenixville on a run yesterday and saw a ton of big drakes and stoneflies on the bridge, with some pretty fishy looking water down below. I hadn't seen it on any PFBC stocking schedules so I figured it would be trout-less. But the proof is in the pudding. May be worth wetting a line there some day...
 
Nice fish. I'd agree that the tiger trout is a stockie that has survived and flourished in the Schuylkill. The brown is wild. I fish the lower portion of Valley above the dam, and over the years I've seen more than a few trout in the 20+ inch range. The largest I've managed to land was 16 inches. Of course there's always the rumors of guys fishing for bass at the mouth of Valley having huge trout follow their lures in.
 
TandemRig wrote:
Nice fish! I did not know the Schuylkill held trout that far down?
Click to expand...

It really doesn't.

These trout are transients - mostly wild browns - that move up and down larger watersheds that one would associate with bass fishing during the colder months of the year and them migrate up tribs.

There aren't a lot of these fish but they tend to be large and all the rivers in PA have some. . . more or less.
 
I have never fished Valley below the dam. I’m going to have to give it a try. Nice fish.
 
I fished right above that deep washout in early April and caught some wild browns about 12”, it was after work one afternoon and I liked that stretch but didn’t get to it. Nice!
 
Growing up in the areas years ago, word was guys fishing at night with live shiners would periodically haul 20+ inch browns out right below the dam
 
If that was in the 1980’s or early 1990’s it would have been hard to NOT be fishing over tens of 18 inch and larger trout in the stretch from the dam downstream about 300 m. As I have mentioned before, however, most of these fish were in “poor condition” in fisheries biologist language, meaning well below average weight or skinny. It sticks in my mind that the one time that my crew electrofished that 300 m stretch they handled around 50- 70 of these larger fish in two EF passes. Unbelievable, even for us. (fish were probably in poor condition because they had remained in the river too long as it warmed up in the last half of spring....I think the electrofishing was done in June).
 
Eye spot: I wonder what lyco. wildtrout, and others think, too.

I use it more as the kicker, these days. Absence of a spot and the fish looks wild, otherwise, I would say holdover. Looks rough, has fused spots, etc. but has an eye spot, I assume new-fangled stocker that has held over. I have not, however, ever caught a holdover that seemed to have grown an eye spot over time (that I am aware of, of course)
 
Regarding the brown the OP shows, it lacks any of the red colors found on typical wild browns. That is, red on the adipose fin, red on the outer edge of the caudal fin, and any red spots at all.

As you mentioned, the fused spots on this trout also make me believe it's a stocked trout. Probably a holdover, but not wild in my opinion.
 
The fin condition and body shape look appropriate to call it wild, however I cant say for sure i have seen the fused spot pattern like that in wild fish.
 
Thanks, fellas. Our impressions match up, but it is good to get a check up! Sorry for the hijack surfsong... Still two good fish!
 
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