Your most unique trout

[wbranch]

These were quite unique to me. The brown is wild but had virtually no red spots, halos, or blue cheeks. The Tiger was caught on the WB near Norbord.

 

[HopBack]

You guys got me looking for a few more. Love all of the pics so far. Here's a few more:

Love the rainbow. Looks more like a California golden trout

 

[HopBack]

these were quite unique to me. The brown is wild but had virtually no red spots, halos,or blue cheeks. The Tiger was caught on the WB near Norbord.

That’s an amazing brown and I remember you sharing the tiger before. I almost believe it to be wild given the location. It’s also very well proportioned compared to a hatchery trout.

 

[wildtrout2]

... I remember you sharing the tiger before. I almost believe it to be wild given the location. It’s also very well proportioned compared to a hatchery trout.

The large size of that tiger makes me skeptical of it being wild. Is the WB stocked at any point, or are there tribs that feed into it that are stocked? Does the WB have natives, or do it's tribs have them?

 

[wbranch]

That’s an amazing brown and I remember you sharing the tiger before. I almost believe it to be wild given the location. It’s also very well proportioned compared to a hatchery trout.

After I caught that Tiger I reached out to a biologist with NY DEC. He told me that NY had never stocked tigers into the WB. He also went onto say that wild tigers are very rare. PA stocks many streams and rivers that feed into the WB & main. The Lackawaxen, the Dyberry which empties into the Lacky in Honedale. Eqinock Creek may be stocked and at one time that little creek at the Shehawken access was stocked. We all know that not only rainbows move a lot and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that a tiger trout stocked into any one of the PA streams that feed the Delaware may have gone on a long swim & eventually ate my streamer in the Norbord pool.

"He also went onto say that wild tigers are very rare" That being said many years ago, I was probably in my late 20's, I took a drive up to Debruce and was fishing Mongaup Creek near the conservation camp. It was late September and if any of you know the stream it is very clear and no more than 15' wide. I was just walking the bank in an area where I was much higher than the water level. I was able to easily see into the riffle about 2' deep. There was a redd and in it was a brook trout and hovering all around and bumping into the brookie was an equally sized brown of about 11". It surely appeared to me that a mating ritual was happening. Maybe some of those eggs got fertilized and a few of those fry wound up being the gene pool from which my tiger started it's life.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Always loved the colors on this one. I caught him twice in about a five year span. Had the same hues but was a bit skinny with all head the last time we met.

 

[lars]

So there has been lots of conversation recently about trout color and pattern variation. It certainly got me thinking about some of the rare ones I’ve caught myself and so I started combing through the photos. Here is what I came up with. Feel free to post your odd looking trout.

View attachment 1641241299

is that a blue trout? the State generally removes them from stocking, but occasionally some get thru.

 

[JSky]

Golden trout x Rainbow trout hybrid caught in Sequoia National Park

 

[wildtrout2]

is that a blue trout? the State generally removes them from stocking, but occasionally some get thru.

That's what I thought it was.

 

[HopBack]

is that a blue trout? the State generally removes them from stocking, but occasionally some get thru.

Yes it’s a blue trout. It was from a club stocking by the brandywine trout club however they didn’t specifically raise any blue trout. I think it was just a fingerling they got in error.

 

[3wt7X]

-Spring Creek Brown taken on an early black stonefly dry fly below Benner Springs (2010). I love the sparse spot pattern.

-Savage River Brown taken on a stimulator (2008). I still have not found a stream that has prettier browns than the Savage.

-Savage River Cutthroat taken on a green weenie (2013). Not the prettiest specimen, but certainly unique for the east coast.

-Back-to-Back Savage River Browns caught on two consecutive cases behind the fly shop (2012ish). I used to chat it up with the former owner during my weekday trips when I used to work shift work and before I had kids. That wall across from his shop holds some big fish that love the sip midges and tiny BWOs on top.
-Big Spring sculpin eater (2015). I loved how the pink extended down to the belly of that trout.

-Big Spring sculpin eater (2014). One of the darkest brookies that I have ever caught.

I miss the days on Big Spring, when you could catch several of those big wild rainbows and brookies in a given trip. I think the amount of fish has increased since the stream improvements but the quality has diminished greatly with the added pressure. I know there are still a few of them in there though.

 

[3wt7X]

Most unique this year. Sparsely spotted brown from a small central PA Spring Creek.

 

[wildtrout2]

-Spring Creek Brown taken on an early black stonefly dry fly below Benner Springs (2010). I love the sparse spot pattern.

-Savage River Brown taken on a stimulator (2008). I still have not found a stream that has prettier browns than the Savage.

-Savage River Cutthroat taken on a green weenie (2013). Not the prettiest specimen, but certainly unique for the east coast.

-Back-to-Back Savage River Browns caught on two consecutive cases behind the fly shop (2012ish). I used to chat it up with the former owner during my weekday trips when I used to work shift work and before I had kids. That wall across from his shop holds some big fish that love the sip midges and tiny BWOs on top.
-Big Spring sculpin eater (2015). I loved how the pink extended down to the belly of that trout.

-Big Spring sculpin eater (2014). One of the darkest brookies that I have ever caught.

I miss the days on Big Spring, when you could catch several of those big wild rainbows and brookies in a given trip. I think the amount of fish has increased since the stream improvements but the quality has diminished greatly with the added pressure. I know there are still a few of them in there though.

That's monster brookie! It's a wild fish?

 

[3wt7X]

That's monster brookie! It's a wild fish?

Yes. I took some bigger wild brookies from there back then. All the credit goes to the artist formerly known as Fishidiot. He taught me how to approach those fish. I think that one was 13.5. The biggest I caught was a 16.5 in male with a huge hump back. I’m sure there are still couple of them hanging around in there, but the entire dynamic of that fishery seemed to change with the improvements.

 

[Swattie87]

Dug out the laptop and pulled a few from the cache. Note, though I was present for all these fish being caught, some were caught by a buddy I was fishing with that day, or my wife, and I was just the photographer. Ignore the spinner in the one really dark Brown's mouth - I did catch that one, fishing super high water that day. It was a cool fish and I wanted to include it.

Edit: These are all unedited photos, other than size or orientation. I'm not that good with photography, or photography software.

 

[wildtrout2]

Swattie, all great fish. They don't get much better than that first brookie.

 

[Swattie87]

Swattie, all great fish. They don't get much better than that first brookie.

Thanks Jeff, that was actually the second biggest Brookie we caught that day, but that one was prettier than the biggest one. We caught 4 fish 11” or bigger that day. Still my best Brookie day ever, for size. Biggest one was 14.5”. Biggest wild Brookie I’ve ever personally seen in PA. Unfortunately, I think the window for these fish in that system is closing. It’s a recovering AMD system, and the Browns have started showing up. Those fish were caught in January 2019. I fished that same stretch last Summer and caught some decent Brookies still, but anything over 9” or so was a Brown now. In 5 years, the Brookies will just be in the tribs again. It was inevitable, and I knew it was coming, but still stinks. Glad I got the chance to catch and a photograph a few of those fish. That was one my of all time favorite days fishing, it was snowing and the fish were super aggressive eating streamers.

 

[Swattie87]

Swattie, all great fish. They don't get much better than that first brookie.

Also, I’ll give you two guesses on where that dark Brown came from, but you’ll only need one.

 

[wildtrout2]

Also, I’ll give you two guesses on where that dark Brown came from, but you’ll only need one.

That's the first stream I thought of. 👍Hard to mistake the vivid spots/colors.

 

[3wt7X]

Dug out the laptop and pulled a few from the cache. Note, though I was present for all these fish being caught, some were caught by a buddy I was fishing with that day, or my wife, and I was just the photographer. Ignore the spinner in the one really dark Brown's mouth - I did catch that one, fishing super high water that day. It was a cool fish and I wanted to include it.

Edit: These are all unedited photos, other than size or orientation. I'm not that good with photography, or photography software.

View attachment 1641241400View attachment 1641241423View attachment 1641241424View attachment 1641241418View attachment 1641241411View attachment 1641241414View attachment 1641241416

All very pretty trout. That second brookie looks more characteristic of the ones we see in the Catoctins. I always seem to catch darker gemmies in PA, especially around Penns and Cook Forest and lighter ones down here in Frederick and Washington County. There is a lot more shade and moss up there and a lot more gravel and bolder structure down here.