Wild Golden Trout?

[albud1962]

I have seen several wild golden trout mixes in the water below the exhibition area in Bellefonte. I am pretty sure they are wild because the fins are in real good shape and they are not pure golden trout.
I caught one recently.

 

[troutbert]

They are probably hatchery fish that were stocked in the exhibition area in the park. Those are not PFBC fish. They are purchased from a small private hatchery. The trout from some of the small hatcheries often have little to no obvious fin wear, and often have pretty good color, too.

 

[pcray1231]

Can't see the pic but I suspect it's not wild, per the reasons troutbert stated.

Also, they could be palomino's rather than goldens since it's a private hatchery (which is a hybrid of a regular bow and a golden). They very well may have been in the stream a long time, though.

 

[albud1962]

Troutbert:

I caught a number of small rainbows which were also brightly colored. Was there a stocking this fall which was not publicized at the exhibition center? Maybe I got excited for nothing :-(

 

[troutbert]

They stocked on 5/20/12.

What size were these small rainbows? Not all the fish they stock are big lunkers. Some are just modest sized trout around 12 inches or so. Some maybe as small as 9 or 10 inches. Probably nothing smaller than that.

 

[albud1962]

troutbert

They were rather small about 6 to 8". At first I thought they were escapees from one of the state's hatcheries. You can definitely tell when you have a rainbow on, they zip around a lot.
I caught 15 two weeks ago so I if they are escapees it was a significant release. Were there any problems during Sandy with the state hatcheries?
I noticed with the changes in the outflows at Benner Spring and Bellefonte there seems to be less of these fish in the stream.
I still get a bunch of rainbows near Milesburg which I am assuming originate from Bald Eagle Creek migrations.

 

[troutbert]

albud1962 wrote:
troutbert

They were rather small about 6 to 8". At first I thought they were escapees from one of the state's hatcheries. You can definitely tell when you have a rainbow on, they zip around a lot.
I caught 15 two weeks ago so I if they are escapees it was a significant release. Were there any problems during Sandy with the state hatcheries?
I noticed with the changes in the outflows at Benner Spring and Bellefonte there seems to be less of these fish in the stream.
I still get a bunch of rainbows near Milesburg which I am assuming originate from Bald Eagle Creek migrations.

I don't think there was any problem with the state hatcheries from Sandy. The water was not that high here.

 

[Chaz]

From time to time golden rainbows do spawn in our creeks, however they seldom last more then a couple of years. So it is possible, and with the release of thousands of NC trout in our lakes and streams they could be streambred.
I couldn't view the pic.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

I have seen those fish. They look like plain old golden rainbows to me. They are colored up nice but IMO that's because of the time they have spent in limestone water not because they are wild.