jason8709
Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 46
Today being Father's Day, my Dad and I went decided to meet up and do some fishing. Well, this morning didn't look promising, all of the creeks we checked were blown out from the rain over the past few days. Chocolate milk and out of the banks. So we went small. Turned into a great day, I caught ~10 fish, all wild rainbows (I don't normally count that closely). All but one fish was in the 6-8" range, very healthy. The watershed is not stocked, they fought like hell and had vibrant markings.
So that led me to thinking about wild rainbows, what with all the wild/native debates.
So: are naturally reproducing rainbow trout native to Pennsylvania (my gut instinct says no) and if not, are they descendants of hatchery fish?
Attached is a picture of one of the fish. What markings indicate the rainbow is wild? I noticed the parr marks were still very visible on each of the fish, even up to my final fish a 10 incher. Also, all of the fish had a white marked tip of their anal fin. I don't have much experience catching wild rainbows, so I'm curious if anyone knows more about them.
Up until today, I had only caught 'dink' rainbows and nothing as big as these guys. I was really impressed with the fishing. Wild browns and native brookies have always been my favorite PA fish (I can't decide which I like more) mainly because I typically only catch stocker bows.
Any insight?
So that led me to thinking about wild rainbows, what with all the wild/native debates.
So: are naturally reproducing rainbow trout native to Pennsylvania (my gut instinct says no) and if not, are they descendants of hatchery fish?
Attached is a picture of one of the fish. What markings indicate the rainbow is wild? I noticed the parr marks were still very visible on each of the fish, even up to my final fish a 10 incher. Also, all of the fish had a white marked tip of their anal fin. I don't have much experience catching wild rainbows, so I'm curious if anyone knows more about them.
Up until today, I had only caught 'dink' rainbows and nothing as big as these guys. I was really impressed with the fishing. Wild browns and native brookies have always been my favorite PA fish (I can't decide which I like more) mainly because I typically only catch stocker bows.
Any insight?