Brown trout vs. Brown trout

[KingofKings]

How can you tell a native brown from a stocked brown in NY?
I have caught many this season, and a few large ones, but they have looked different?!
Any help is appreciated...

[Browntrout5]

I have always found the stocked Brown Trout very rarely have red spots on the abdomen as opposed to Native browns usually having very bright red markings

[KingofKings]

The other day I caught a ~3.5 lb. male brown locally and it didn't have a single red spot on it. I released it of course, but that is where my question derived from...:confused:

[JStreamside]

...on where you caught the fish, what they are feeding on etc. But, the most determining factor is what "strain" of browns you're catching. To me, hatchery fish are pretty "bland" looking until they've spent some time in a particular body of water...then they will color up, but still not usually as much as a wild fish.

Locally (including the Delaware system) we have both German browns and Loch Leven browns. The Germans tend to have larger and more vibrant spots, while the Loch's tend to have a mix of a lot of black spots and smaller orange spots (if any) and will have a "blue-ish" spot on the gill plate behind the eye area. I've even caught some browns in the Delaware that were nearly silver like they came out of the Great Lakes...those seem to be very early season fish though.

[flyman23]

This is not 100 percent accurate, however, take a look at the pectoral fins, a stocker that has not been in the river a long time has fins that are abraided and stubby. A wild fish will have long smooth pectoral fins. The stocked fish rub against the concrete walls of the tanks and their fins get torn up.

[Fish-N-Chip]

Not foolproof but the wild brownies around here usually have fewer and larger dark spots along with red spots, their fins are very large and clean compared to hatchery browns, and their head is rather large compared to the rest of the body which is slender. They usually fight better too!!

Chip

[Ditchrat]

How can you tell a native brown from a stocked brown in NY?
I have caught many this season, and a few large ones, but they have looked different?!
Any help is appreciated...


Well truth be told you cant, and never will be. All BT in NY are stocked fish, or came from stocked fish. Most of the BT's in the state come from the same set of stocked fish done 150 years ago.

What you are basically asking is how can I tell the difference between fish that have lived in a differenet environment and then have been quickly moved to a new one. Given time you will never be able to tell the differences between a stocked fish and a streambred fish. As the stockers will quickly change their coloring to give them the best coloration for the water they live in, which will be the same color as the stream bredfish.

Unless a fish has obvious scarring from the hatchery you will never be able to 100% tell the difference, since they are the same fish.

[bigbear]

yep :D :p

[KingofKings]

One nice BT that I got from Charolette Creek...
http://www.salmoncrazy.com/vgallery/showimage.php?i=2173&catid=member&imageuser=870

This fish had a nice yellow color with large black spots, and red spots scattered throughout...real nice-looking fish.

I fish where Charolette Creek meets the Susquehanna River. The females that I have caught have all looked the same, very silver compared to the males, but still have red/black spots...just smaller. But I was fishing about a mile down from where the creek/river merge last week at this dam/fall, and got a real nice male BT. One of it's fins wasn't clipped, but looked half chewed off. Also, it was a dark gold with ONLY black spots. I will have that pic soon. Very plain looking colors, but had nice size to it and a big hook jaw. Quite a surprise when you think you got a walleye...

[Fish Tech]

When fish biologists conduct electrofishing surveys on streams they always try to determine whether or not the brown trout they capture are "wild" (born in the stream) or "stocked" (came from a hatchery). Although its not 100 percent fool proof, one method they use is to look closely at the fin rays on the dorsal fin. A fish that came from a hatchery will have fin rays that are bent or curved while the dorsal fin rays on a wild trout will be perfectly straight.

[Ditchrat]

When fish biologists conduct electrofishing surveys on streams they always try to determine whether or not the brown trout they capture are "wild" (born in the stream) or "stocked" (came from a hatchery). Although its not 100 percent fool proof, one method they use is to look closely at the fin rays on the dorsal fin. A fish that came from a hatchery will have fin rays that are bent or curved while the dorsal fin rays on a wild trout will be perfectly straight.

That is really a poor way to look at it.(I know its not your view so dont take this as an attack) Having some experience doing stream surveys I can tell you that no Fisheries Biologist worth his degrees would every rely on that type of observation to make that determination.

As a generallity it is just flat out wrong. Depending on the quality of fish produced by a fish hatchery, fish can have fins worn off, stumps, frayed fins, curved fins, ect. We have all seen trout, salmon and steelhead with messed up fins. Fin damage can be cause from spawning, moving up stream over rocks, fighting, rubbing on the sides of a tank, or raceway and a host of other reasons including illness.

Fish that have damage fins can regrow the damage, if its minor. If its near opening day and the fish has beat up fins then chances are that its a stocker. But the key word is "chances".

It all goes back to there are no native Browns in the U.S.A. In the grand scheme of things whats the difference between a stocked fish that has survivied 2 years, and a fish that has been stream bred? Nothing, except the stock got bigger quicker on hatchery food.

[gottum]

I'd say this is a "natural" or "wild" bt-

http://nywalleyeguide.com/walleye/albums/userpics/10014/jimbt.jpg

This one would be a hatchery fish-

http://nywalleyeguide.com/walleye/albums/userpics/10014/jimbt1.jpg

[hizzy19]

http://www.salmoncrazy.com/vgallery/files/6/9/8/22brown.jpg
Looked like a wild river brown, but there is pretty much no natural reproduction in this stream so it is almost definitely a stocked holdover fish... What ditchrat said sounds about right to me...
It all goes back to there are no native Browns in the U.S.A. In the grand scheme of things whats the difference between a stocked fish that has survivied 2 years, and a fish that has been stream bred? Nothing, except the stock got bigger quicker on hatchery food.

[Ditchrat]

I'd say this is a "natural" or "wild" bt-

This one would be a hatchery fish-

http://nywalleyeguide.com/walleye/albums/userpics/10014/jimbt1.jpg

That is a brown trout that is suffering from a vitamin defeciency. Most likely a hatchery fish but it is just as likely to occur in the wild.

[psac]

In my backyard, I have a stream that contains "true" wild browns. I know this b/c there hasn't been a stocking on this stream as far as I can tell in the last 50 years at least. Most browns in this stream are in the 6"-9" range but on occasion, we get them bigger, up to about 16" is my biggest. This stream is <3 meters in width and the fish do have perfect pec fins and their colors are extremely vivid. There are several streams in CT at least that are designated "wild trout" streams throughout the state.
Ditch is right that there is really no way to determine, without a dobt, that a fish is wild or not, but there are strong indicators that can be taken into account to make an educated guess. One good method is determining if there is suitable habitat for spawning and stream temps for holdovers. Fins are just one part of the equation. Just remember that science really adds up to "a bunch of theories" anyways.:D

[bigbear]

well there is one FACT, that is that no brown trout are native to the us
they were ALL stocked fish at some point:p

[Craydaddy]

Is this a wild fish??? It is silver.

http://www.salmoncrazy.com/vgallery/files/1/0/8/brownie3.JPG

[KingofKings]

Most of the one's I catch around here look like Hizzy's. The SR browns look much different than the one's around here, besides size...

[Craydaddy]

well there is one FACT, that is that no brown trout are native to the us
they were ALL stocked fish at some point:p

Yes and no, I understand that they are not native but there are creeks that have alot of natural reproduction. Look at Penn's creek. They haven't stocked them since the 70's. They have a self sustaining brown trout population. Now on the rare occasion up there you will get a stocky bow or brook trout that found it's way to the upper reaches of the creek.

[Adrenalinerush]

That is a brown trout that is suffering from a vitamin defeciency. Most likely a hatchery fish but it is just as likely to occur in the wild.


Maybe I should try drifting a multi vitamin under a float in the fall!:D

[KingofKings]

The ones that produce naturally have more vibrant colors?!
Or not necessarily...