Saturday, June 2, 2012
Wild or not?
I went to a local stream today to pursue it's resident brookies. I've never caught more than one per visit, but this time I had much better luck. I fooled 3 (pics of 2 are below) and had a few other strikes using a Better's Usual and a Gartside Sparrow. It's actually a beautiful little stream, with a cobbled stream bed and some nice pools. The thing that I just can't figure out is whether the larger brookies residing in this stream are wild or stocked. Their coloration is rich, their bodies are thick and their fins are in very good shape. Unlike other wild fish that I've caught these are large (~10 inches), which is why I'm not sure of their origin. Either way, the brookies in this stream are beautiful and fun to pursue.
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They look wild to me.
ReplyDeleteThere are other factors which could help to determine if they are wild. Stream temps, food sources, fish that size require protein, good water flows. Have you noticed small brook trout fry.
Anyway I'd like to fish it for my self one day.
Neither one of your fish looks like they've been beat up in a hatchery, so unless released as very small fingerings, I would go with native. Many states stocking programs list where and when they stock, however I am sure there are many deviation s off of what they say they do. I'm sure a phone call could help you find out if that stream is stocked with adult trout. (Did they rise to a fish pellet imitation?) haha. Anyways, as long as its a char, squaretail, coaster, speckled, eastern, southern, or northern strain, at least its not a Brown. Nice fish!
ReplyDeleteSwamp Yankee, last year the stream received 150 browns and no brookies. I don't know about this year. My guess is that it would have been browns again, which means that these brookies are wild. There aren't a lot of them, but the ones there are certainly beautiful. The larger ones are browner, I'm sure a result of being in tannic acid stained water for a longer period of time. I haven't caught a single brown there, so maybe it wasn't stocked this year.
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