Wild or Stocked?

[Troutmeister]

Let me just say I always believed I could tell at a glance whether a brown was wild or stocked. I was up in Potter County last week and caught a bunch of fish but a few of them I really couldn't tell. If these were hatchery browns they were the prettiest I've ever seen. The golden sides and bellies and the bright red spots looked wild, but the fact that they were so fat and were mixed in with stocked rainbows has me thinking stocked. What say you?

 

[dudemanspecial]

First one looks wild to me. Not sure about the second one.

 

[tomgamber]

Going with holdover, stocked.

But what do I know?

 

[Tups]

They appear wild to me, but I’m sure I will be straightened out. Nice looking fish. Also, I like that fly and your Martin 63 reel. Old school tackle, dispelling the notion that newer is better.

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

Both look wild to me.. I could be wrong. Look to me like wild ones I've caught in the cricks of Potter Co.
Some wild trout get fat early spring . And being mixed with stocked rainbows? Is there a STW section in Potter Co. that doesn't have wild trout at some time of the year? Fish can swim and they do.

 

[Broodstock]

Hard to say for sure. The pec fin on the second one seems like it might belong to a not wild fish, but the spot patterns are not the typical stocker type. Color looks wild. I suppose at this point it likely doesn’t matter much.

 

[Bamboozle]

Pretty colors and nice fish, but the fins, especially the pectoral make me lean toward stocked...

 

[FlyGuy9]

Look wild unless they are a club stocked fish from a spring fed hatchery or something. How did they fight? A lot of times that can help differentiate as well.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

Nice fish either way.....if ya got these in the allegheney in potter county..there prob holdover browns...theres wild in that stream to. But nore holdovers with cool colors i worked up there and lived in coudy last 2 yrs and always wondered too about that also lol

 

[jifigz]

That second one has an odd body/head shape, but the spot patterns look wild. Their brown/olive colorations look wild. From what I can see in the pictures, I see no problems with the fins. With the second one, something just looks a little off, though. Both fish look like they have the eye spot, though.

My judgment call: Fish one - wild. Fish two - maybe a holdover, but maybe a weird shaped wild fish. It kind of checks both boxes.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Both fish are very nicely colored and the spot pattern is not representative of the typical pfbc "digi" brown spot pattern.


With that send, the pectoral fin on the 2nd fish is a very solid indicator of hatchery life. The pectoral of the first fish, while not as scarred and damaged, seems small for the fish. Typically wild browns of that size have quite large pec fins and they are almost opaque in color.

Without knowing the stream, I would hesitate calling them wild.

 

[TCWNY]

The second looks like a hatchery fish to me, kink in his fin and the head has that "I grew way faster than I was supposed to" small look to it. The first is a beautiful fish either way!

 

[jifigz]

Maybe the PFBC should start offering generic testing....

 

[wildtrout2]

Those are tough ones, but the second one has a somewhat ragged pelvic fin, which makes me lean towards stocked. Nice looking browns either way.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Maybe the PFBC should start offering generic testing....

Be careful what you wish for! Many different hatchery strains exist if consifering private hatcheries.

If a stocked brown trout successfully spawns, are its offspring wild? If so, would the genetics of the offspring be identical of the hatchery strain it originated from?

 

[wildtrout2]

If a stocked brown trout successfully spawns, are its offspring wild?

I would say so. That's what probably happened on a stream near me. They stocked it for years, then stopped about 15 years ago. Now, there's a naturally reproducing population of wild browns.

 

[Troutmeister]

There are lots of wild browns in the stream I caught these fish in, but you mostly catch them after a rain or first thing in the morning or evening. What makes me think stocked is they came from a DHALO stream and it was overrun with anglers, also I caught these 2 and lost another similar one in a small stretch that was heavily stocked.

 

[jifigz]

If a stocked brown trout successfully spawns, are its offspring wild?

Yes, in my eyes, those fish are wild

 

[troutbert]

Let me just say I always believed I could tell at a glance whether a brown was wild or stocked. I was up in Potter County last week and caught a bunch of fish but a few of them I really couldn't tell. If these were hatchery browns they were the prettiest I've ever seen. The golden sides and bellies and the bright red spots looked wild, but the fact that they were so fat and were mixed in with stocked rainbows has me thinking stocked. What say you?

They both look like hatchery trout. I'm going mostly by the pelvic fins.

 

[5footfenwick]

Yes, in my eyes, those fish are wild

Sometimes I wonder if they are where the wild browns that have little to no red spots come from?