Zombie trout??

[Ggrove]

Please let me preface this thread by mentioning that I am pretty new to the sport, and have never observed spawning trout.

That being said, I was just out on one of my home streams and observed pretty unusual behavior from the browns. Please note that it is very difficult for any fish to survive the summer months in this stream, as it gets very low and warm. The stream is going to be stocked next week, so I figured I would go out and get myself familiarized with the creek again. To my surprise, I hooked into a few on a dry fly hatch. What I noticed was that these trout were incredibly dark and sluggish. I will provide a few pics. They were similar to spawning salmon in the way they were acting, so I decided to stop fishing and just observe. I walked about a mile of the creek, and there were no redds. Trout were frequently paired up, but were rising on olives. Any fish in this stream would be stocked, and I don't know if they are able to reproduce. What I figured was that these fish were recently put in by a third party and that caused the dark colorations and sluggishness, but what throws me off is that they were going through the motions of spawning. If they were stocked, it had to of been in the past month, and I cant imagine any stocked fish would get familiarized and begin spawning in that time frame. The trout also were not very aware of their surroundings, as I watched a heron walk right onto one and slurp it down. Any ideas as to what was going on??

Edit: all the trout I observed were like this, not just a few.

 

[Cznymph]

The “Digi-camo” patterning on those brown trout is a tell tale sign that these were stocked by the PFBC.

 

[PennKev]

Imo, They look like the typical PAFBC fall stockers.

Those fish definitely try to spawn. The key word being "try."

 

[Ggrove]

The “Digi-camo” patterning on those brown trout is a tell tale sign that these were stocked by the PFBC.

What confused me is they arnt scheduled to stock until next week. Would they do it early?

 

[Cznymph]

What confused me is they arnt scheduled to stock until next week. Would they do it early?

Is it possible that these fish could have found thermal refuge somewhere in the body of water, or moved into a smaller, colder tributary until temperatures cooled.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

Fall browns stocked by the pfbc as a former employee i can attest to to these as recent stockers.....they die off from fungus outbreaks this time of year in the hatcherys

 

[Cougarbaby]

Fall browns stocked by the pfbc as a former employee i can attest to to these as recent stockers.....they die off from fungus outbreaks this time of year in the hatcherys

These were stocked in a local stream today they look really dark also

 

[rustbeltwilds]

Yep they get that way in october in the raceways dark n dirty lookin with some fungus mixed in. Spawning stress

 

[jifigz]

Dang, that trout is UGLY!

 

[PennKev]

Is it possible that these fish could have found thermal refuge somewhere in the body of water, or moved into a smaller, colder tributary until temperatures cooled.

Those fish are wayyyyyy to plump to be holdover that barely got through the summer. It would have to be more than a thermal refuge to keep them fat like that. Even in good conditions stocked trout usually lose weight.

 

[afishinado]

Those fish are wayyyyyy to plump to be holdover that barely got through the summer. It would have to be more than a thermal refuge to keep them fat like that. Even in good conditions stocked trout usually lose weight.

Agreed ^

I would bet they are recently stocked fish.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

100 pct recently stocked. Sometimes conditions hatchery moves. Wco things etc doesnt always mean they get stocked on a given date..yhese were fresh stockers. Even at the very least IF these fish found some thermal refuge there colors would be way more colorful and brighter

 

[jifigz]

What stream is this? I am sure we can find the stocking schedule by the state/sportsman club!

 

[Cougarbaby]

My picture came from Deer creek DHALO area northern Allegheny county they were put in by the Pa fish comm yesterday and I took the pic last night on my nightly walk half of them were gone tonight probably from the pair of Blue Herron who lives in the area they been waiting patiently most of the summer they pretty much had them all eaten by late June early July