wild or Stocked

Ok. Can someone remind me how to post a photo or where to look on the website? Thanks!
 
Look at the sticky topic at the top of this forum topic.


Posting pics
 
My photo is from my phone that I saved on my desktop.
 

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If you PM me the location where you could caught the brookie, I'd be better able to answer your question. :)
 
Hard to tell with the poor picture and the fact that you have all the fins covered up. If I had to guess based on size and coloration I would say stocked.
 
Fins are huge on that fish. Tons of red on underside and fins. Good speckles but mainly on bottom portion of the fish. BTW I have a photo of this fish also. Maybe he can enlarge it. I will try this weekend.
 
I agree that it is a pretty lousy picture and I honestly can't tell and/or see much of the fine details about the fish. The colors of the fish look very bland and washed out though..is that the picture or the actual fish? Hmmmm
 
Yeah, not an ideal picture to work from, but still, there's a lot of info that can be pulled from it. From what we can see of the fins, they seem large and sharp, with clearly defined color lines. The tail looks to be in good shape and has a good bit of red/orange in it...A trait more commonly seen in wild fish than stockers. It's big for a wild Brookie, but not unheard of...Looks to be about 11-12" give or take. Context clues...The water looks very high and off color and the angler is fishing with a 2018 license. We've had a lot of those water conditions in 2018, and it's common for those conditions to "wash out" the color in wild Trout to some degree. It happens to both Brookies and Browns. On the picture alone...70/30 wild is my guess.

Location of course trumps all. If it's in a wild Brookie stream that isn't stocked, given the above physical traits, it's more than likely wild. That being said, if it's in an ATW without a wild Brookie population, or only a marginal one, it's most likely stocked. I don't expect the OP to tell us where it was caught, but that's always the most important piece of information IMO.
 
Or it could be upstream of a stocked water. I think it is a stocked male and trying to become wild.
 
JackM wrote:
I think it is a stocked male and trying to become wild.
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He's going native. Nice.
 
Swattie87 wrote:
Yeah, not an ideal picture to work from, but still, there's a lot of info that can be pulled from it. From what we can see of the fins, they seem large and sharp, with clearly defined color lines. The tail looks to be in good shape and has a good bit of red/orange in it...A trait more commonly seen in wild fish than stockers. It's big for a wild Brookie, but not unheard of...Looks to be about 11-12" give or take. Context clues...The water looks very high and off color and the angler is fishing with a 2018 license. We've had a lot of those water conditions in 2018, and it's common for those conditions to "wash out" the color in wild Trout to some degree. It happens to both Brookies and Browns. On the picture alone...70/30 wild is my guess.

Location of course trumps all. If it's in a wild Brookie stream that isn't stocked, given the above physical traits, it's more than likely wild. That being said, if it's in an ATW without a wild Brookie population, or only a marginal one, it's most likely stocked. I don't expect the OP to tell us where it was caught, but that's always the most important piece of information IMO.
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My opinion is essentially the same.

Just on the photo alone, I'd say probably wild. I have caught wild brookies that looked very similar.

But a photo alone is not enough. The location is key. Does the PFBC stock it? If not, it's still possible a coop hatchery or other people stock it. What else did you catch there? Any stockies? Wild brookies? Wild browns?

 
I’m going to say wills bases on the gill covers. I don’t see gill covers that long on stocked brookies.
 
Since you were using a spinning rod, it is definitely stocked. ;-)
 
Only a fly fishermen would care if it's stocked, wild or native. I think it's a fly rod so it's wild.
 
poopdeck wrote:
Only a fly fishermen would care if it's stocked, wild or native.
Click to expand...

I think that anyone who cares about the health of our fisheries, and is passionate about trout fishing wants to be catching wild fish and thus the desire to know the difference. A certain few well known catch-counting spin fisherman target wild fish for the same reasons fly anglers do. Likewise for many of the spin guys who have adopted their techniques.

That said, the wild vs stocked threads are at least somewhat tiresome.
 
PennKev wrote:

That said, the wild vs stocked threads are at least somewhat tiresome.
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Only if you read them.
 
PennKev wrote:

That said, the wild vs stocked threads are at least somewhat tiresome.
Click to expand...

Honestly if things aren't rehashed and gone over for new people, etc, how long can a forum really stay that active? There is only so much to talk about regarding fly fishing. Now there are always the current topics involving conservation, the PFBC, etc, but that content is severely limited as well.
 
Honestly if things aren't rehashed and gone over for new people, etc, how long can a forum really stay that active?
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This is one of the few things that still keeping this board active anymore....
 
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