Wild Trout vs. Stocked

[steveo27]

Yep. That though crossed my mind as well. Both fish were legal size, everything else I caught were gemmies. No small 'bows.

I never really thought of the club stocking option, but that makes sense. Sucks they can stock over class A waters like that. Im assuming they can stock on public land/state forest/gamelands, too?

 

[troutbert]

steveo27 wrote:
Yep. That though crossed my mind as well. Both fish were legal size, everything else I caught were gemmies. No small 'bows.

I never really thought of the club stocking option, but that makes sense. Sucks they can stock over class A waters like that. Im assuming they can stock on public land/state forest/gamelands, too?

They are not supposed to stock over Class A streams.

But it happens pretty often.

It's a good idea to report it to the PFBC.

 

[ryansheehan]

pcray1231 wrote:
Pink band doesn't tell you much on a bow. Many wild fish are almost without a red band at all. It can vary greatly from stream to stream.

Agree that bows are the toughest, probably mostly due to our inexperience with them.

The good fin edges, transparantish fins, and body shape seems to be a decent indicator for all 3 species, although not fully reliable. I seem to have noticed that on most wild bows I've caught, the spot pattern wraps around down towards the belly moreso than it seems to on stockies. Well below the lateral line almost onto the belly. That fits with your fish above. But that might vary stream to stream, and might be different for co-op hatcheries and such too.

I agree with you that the size and length of the band can vary greatly but looking through pictures of the wild bows(I think) I can't find a single broken band. As far as the spots I never really thought about that but looking some pics of stockies(I think) I found quite a few that had spots down, but maybe I've been looking at it wrong. Here are a few with spots down but the fins are off imo, tell me what you think, stockers right?

 

[pcray1231]

Maybe your right on the spots. Lookin at a couple of mine they don't all have it. Here's a few Pa wild bows I found in my pic collection. Virtually no band at all.

 

[ryansheehan]

I see what you mean about the band. I guess I'm thinking about the fish like your last one. I also found a pic of a wild fish, I think, with no spots below the line at all. I feel less confident calling bows wild or stocked than any other fish. Those are some beautiful looking fish.

 

[sarce]

All of the wild bows I have caught in PA look like the one in the post above (#45) with large, sparse spots, but often very silvery. I've only caught them in central PA limestoners, and I think the ones in SW and NW PA are a different strain, and those are what pcray posted.

 

[pcray1231]

Ryan, just a heads up. You missed a call, have a voicemail, and need to charge your phone.

Sarce, yeah, those are western PA bows. Here's a few from the smokies for academic comparison. The spot pattern is perhaps at least partially genetic. The stripe is most likely diet. Shrimp and cressbugs are very high in the pigment that causes red, so limestone and tailwater fish having more red makes sense. Though the second one here has a bright stripe and is a free stone fish, so there are exceptions.

 

[ryansheehan]

pcray1231 wrote:
Ryan, just a heads up. You missed a call, have a voicemail, and need to charge your phone.
/quote]

Took me a minute there...had to go back and look at my picture. I zoomed in on a screen shot so there wouldn't be any back ground.

 

[Pr0digal_son]

First post here,probably not the best place to start,but curious about these fish.

I am pretty positive that the brightly colored fish is wild,but the others not so sure. The two in question were caught in a stream that I think is stocked by the state.

Thanks for any help. Looking forward to learning from you all and hopefully contributing myself.

John

 

[Dave_W]

John,
Those are some very nice brook trout and your post is most definitely a good place to start.
I'd suggest that all three are wild fish.

Welcome to our online community - glad to have yuh.
Dave

 

[steveo27]

First off, welcome. What part of western PA are you from?

First 2 appear to have clipped gills, Id say they are stocked.

Id be comfortable calling the 3rd native (wild).

Mind sharing the stream the 2 questionable ones came from? That may be helpful in verifying that they are indeed stocked.

 

[troutbert]

I think the bottom brookie is wild.

And that the top two are hatchery trout.

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Thanks for confiming,gents. I caught the first two in Linn Run and I think it is stocked with brookies. I did catch some from 3-6" that I feel safe saying were wild. It is a nice place for a beginner.


The bottom one looked like it was getting ready to spawn.. It was very strong and everything on it was clean. There were more fish that I kicked up that were equally large. I felt safe saying it was wild but not 100% sure as I am new. Pretty sure this was an EV stream or Class A. I was a bit lost to be honest.

Thanks again for the info and welcoming. Looking forward to making some friends here and hopefully some travelling buddies. I prefer little streams and have been in a few hairy situations. Would be nice to have someone around incase something goes wrong.


John

 

[Swattie87]

Agree with DaveW. I'd call wild on all 3, most confident on the third but the first two have more wild going for them than stocked IMO. The fish was likely just attempting to breathe and moving its gill plate in the first pic. I don't think it's actually deformed or short.

Very nice Gemmies. Bottom one is a hoss.

 

[steveo27]

Pr0digal_son wrote: I caught the first two in Linn Run and I think it is stocked with brookies.

Linn Run is stocked with brookies. There is a nice population of wild/native brook trout in it though,m the farther up you get from the park, the better.

 

[Jessed]

http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo39/jessedavis47/94F43227-0613-4430-909D-B09FDD4AA1E6_zpsf6uatfna.png

Here's another wild bow from the smokies and the coloring is normal. Nothing too different.

 

[pcray1231]

I'd guess 1 and 3 are wild. 2 stocked but in the stream a while. Least sure on 3.

Reasoning

1. Smaller than most stockies. Red/blue spots are sparse which is very rare on stocked fish. White/black line on anal fin is perfect, straight and sharp, very rare on stocked fish. Fin edges are perfect. No muddy gray anywhere. I'm extremely confident on this one.

2. White/black delineation on anal fin is sharp but not straight. Heavy blue spot pattern typical of stocked fish. Size is appropriate, thick at shoulders like it grew fast but belly suggests recently starved and can't sustain that thickness. Red on belly is "muddy"; has some grayish showing, in fins too. Pelvic fin is rough edged. Fairly confident.

3. Skinny for it's length, even at shoulders, but the belly isn't sunk like it's starving. This is an old fish that grew at a pace it could sustain. Fin edges look good. White/black on anal fin is sharp and nearly straight, between 1 and 2 but closer to 1. Spot pattern is dense but that's not unusual on wild fish, it's just that a sparse pattern IS unusual on stocked fish. Location, by the sounds of it, strongly suggests wild. Only moderately confident, but I say wild.

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Again,thanks for all the help. Without going through the whole checklist,I doubted 1 and 2 just from size and the fact that Linn is stocked. I have caught brookies in the ANF and never really that size.

The third fish I figured was. Well I was hoping,doubt I will catch another wild brookie that big for awhile if ever!! I was kind of crapping my pants!!

I think it is an EV stream. I saw a sign stating that in the headwaters,but I left there and moved a couple miles downstream where there was actual water. So not sure if that sign was for that feeder run,or that was the headwater for that actual stream. Absolutely amazing stream though,couldn't believe the amount of water in a stream that small,and not a speck of silt.....zero! Even the banks of the stream weren't muddy or silty. And a couple of the dribbles running into it were packed with small natives.

 

[Acristickid]

First bow is a wild from SC PA , the others are western PA wild bows



]SC wild bow [/url]

]Western PA wild bow[/url]


]Western PA wild bow [/url]

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Never fished in waters that had fingerling bow stockings so always felt confident that the ones I caught were wild. Caught quite a few and they all had the pink stripe,some more than others. I have only caught them in extremely cold water during the jan and feb months if that matters.