Wild or stocked

[JeffP]

What do you think

about this one?

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Stocked 💯

 

[troutbert]

The first trout shown is stocked.

 

[Mike]

Now that you know that the pictured fish is stocked, what say you about the “wild” browns in Middle Ck near the springs about which I think you reported a couple of yrs ago I believe? Maybe you could compare photos. Are they mostly wild, mostly stocked, all wild, or all stocked?

 

[JeffP]

Now that you know that the pictured fish is stocked, what say you about the “wild” browns in Middle Ck near the springs about which I think you reported a couple of yrs ago I believe? Maybe you could compare photos. Are they mostly wild, mostly stocked, all wild, or all stocked?

I actually didn't catch that one. At first glance it looked similar to some of the ones that I posted before that most seemed to think were wild. I will dig up those pics and post and we can check them out. It's not a great pic. I leaned wild but I am beginning to question my abilities to tell the difference. Most of the browns I have caught there are much more heavily spotted. This was a smaller fish than it looked. Browns in this stretch could come from the state or the Lititz Sportsman's club. I will post after work.

 

[JeffP]

Actually in hindsight it does looked stocked. Maybe that's just groupthink at work! I haven't seen what I thought was a wild fish in a couple years and trout in the fall have been pretty scarce. The video is one I took last night at the Limerock bridge. I guess those were sulphur spinners but they were pretty white and pretty small.

 

[JeffP]

Here is one of them. Pretty big difference.

 

[Mike]

That second pic is still a stocked fish. Trailing edges of fins appear are in rough shape and the fish just looks like a stockie that has been in the stream for a relatively short period of time, perhaps a few months, that is just starting to get some yellowish color. The color tone of the reddish spots are those of a typical stockie and even when some strains of PFBC fish are stocked as fingerlings that “reddish” color tone never improves, such as when the Tully was a fingerling stocked stream. Could be the strain, the individual fish gene related to color expression, and/or the food sources that result in that color never improving, but it is a reddish, more orange to me, coloration that is typical for Pa stocked BT.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Yeah I was gonna say too Mike, both of these fish looked stocked.

 

[JeffP]

I will see if I can find a couple other ones. I don't disagree but it seemed like that there was almost universal agreement that the ones I posted were wild.

 

[jifigz]

Without a doubt, stocked..both pics.

 

[wildtrout2]

Yeah, whenever I see orange spots instead of red spots on a brown, it makes me skeptical of it being wild.

 

[dudemanspecial]

I agree on the orange vs red spots being a key difference.

However I catch plenty of wild browns that have neither red or orange spots, are light colored and could easily be confused for stockers if one didn't know where they were standing.

 

[wildtrout2]

I agree on the orange vs red spots being a key difference.

However I catch plenty of wild browns that have neither red or orange spots, are light colored and could easily be confused for stockers if one didn't know where they were standing.

Agree. Tuesday, I got this nice wild brown on an unstocked natural repo stream and it had no color to it at all.
It did have the eye spot, which I look for on wild browns.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Agree. Tuesday, I got this nice wild brown on an unstocked natural repo stream and it had no color to it at all.
It did have the eye spot, which I look for on wild browns.

Exceptional fish. Nice work!

 

[jifigz]

Agree. Tuesday, I got this nice wild brown on an unstocked natural repo stream and it had no color to it at all.
It did have the eye spot, which I look for on wild browns.

Did it eat a parachute Adams?

 

[JeffP]

Without a doubt, stocked..both pic

You and a number of others (Wild Trouter, Hopback, Mike, PCray, and Swattie) I trust on here indicated wild on most of the fish or liked statements of wild.

 

[wildtrout2]

Did it eat a parachute Adams?

You know big browns don't take dry flies.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Exceptional fish. Nice work!

Yes, great fish.

That fish needs it's own thread if it's from where I think it's from!

 

[Mike]

Agree. Tuesday, I got this nice wild brown on an unstocked natural repo stream and it had no color to it at all.
It did have the eye spot, which I look for on wild browns.

Some large female BT are really bland with respect to coloration. My first 19”er from Logan Branch in 1976 was like that.