Fish Sticks
Well-known member
Thats such a weird looking trout. Its gotta be a rainbow but the weird part is the only part of it that looks like a rainbow is the red strip on par marks, rest looks like a brown(very few spots ok back, most rainbows have the spots concentrated pretty heavy back there).
afishinado
Moderator
Staff member
Add that to your list of exotic trout caught, Kid........a wild brownbow!!
wildtrout2
Well-known member
I would certainly say it's a rainbow, although a bit odd looking.
redietz
Well-known member
Unless I'm mis-seeing the the photo, it's got spots on the tail, so it has to be a rainbow.
A diet rich in crustaceans will add some red to even a brown, but usually not as a stripe.
A diet rich in crustaceans will add some red to even a brown, but usually not as a stripe.
salvelinus
Well-known member
Hank Patterson says cuttyrainbrown.
Acristickid
Well-known member
Please NO!! I already caught all the cutthroats, then the biologists find two more. No!!! I believe this will continue to happen with more advanced science.
wgmiller
Well-known member
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100% wild rainbow. I caught a handful of them at the Jam from Spring.
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Spookintrout
Member
Looks like some of the wild rainbows from big spring. When they get a diet high in cressbugs I believe they color up similar to the above fish. Heres a nice one I caught a couple months ago, I believe march some time.
wildtrout2
Well-known member
Beautiful trout!
redietz
Well-known member
What was weird about the fish above wasn't the color, but the fact that the spots above the stripe are larger and more sparse than a typical rainbow.
I agree about the color, though. First thing I thought before I looked at the spots was "Big Spring rainbow." I've caught golden trout (actual golden trout in the Sierras, not the factory mutants around here) that are less brightly colored than some of 'bows I've caught in Big Spring. And you're right, it's the cress bugs and scuds.
silverfox
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Sure looks like a standard rainbow to me.
I don't like to speculate wild/hatchery with rainbows because I've seen enough fingerling rainbows that look "wild" to know that rainbows are far harder to tell the origin than brown trout are.
Even w/ browns I've seen a lot of people assume browns are wild when I'd bet money they're either holdovers or club stockers. Including a lot of these "migratory brown trout" that are all the rage these days.
Case in point, this is a stocked rainbow. Stocked as a fingerling.
Wild rainbow (big spring)
Stocked rainbow (fingerling stocker).
bigjohn358
Well-known member
Rainbow for sure...I honestly think its next to impossible to tell a wild rainbow in PA. They stock a lot of fingerlings and they travel great distances.
Solitariolupo
Active member
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Could be a brownbow sometimes it happens.
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
And I will say also as well there is really not much difference from a wild rainbow and a stocked rainbow in PA anyway. If its born in a hatchery or 10th generation removed. Its still a fish that was inbred extensively to just eat and be aggressive with no significant adaptation to its awkward transcontinental living situation. Wild or stocked its what I call a “Honey Boo Boo trout”
Every now and again I see a picture of a native rainbow trout who's genes were sentenced to 100 years of hard time in the hatchery system on social media. Like an alaskan leopard rainbow. And you remeber “ holy crap their a real animal” no just some rubbery deformed bar of meat/outdoor party favor unleashed in foreign ecosystems.
I think there may be a big fingerling program in bald eagle can anyone else confirm or deny for me?
Every now and again I see a picture of a native rainbow trout who's genes were sentenced to 100 years of hard time in the hatchery system on social media. Like an alaskan leopard rainbow. And you remeber “ holy crap their a real animal” no just some rubbery deformed bar of meat/outdoor party favor unleashed in foreign ecosystems.
I think there may be a big fingerling program in bald eagle can anyone else confirm or deny for me?
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
Genes weren’t sentenced to*
bigjohn358
Well-known member
Bald Eagle, Fishing Creek, and a few other places have very large rainbow fingerling programs. Those are the 2 in central PA that I personally know have rainbow fingerling stockings usually in the middle of summer.
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
Thanks for the information. Id imagine in bald eagle their probably providing a lot of expensive fish chow for the brown trout to an extent.
bigjohn358
Well-known member
For a few weeks no doubt! They do grow up fast though. By the spring they are easily legal size usually 7-10 inches.
DomR
Active member
Strangebow
