Stockie, holdover or wild?

[evw659]

rainbow

Caught this guy yesterday. the white tipped fins, good color, and sharp edged tail that you dont see on hatchery fish caught my attention and got me thinking. What do you guys think? im leaning towards holdover but dont know for sure.( sorry for displaying my whole photo album in the link, when i try to post just the pic it doesnt work.)

 

[JasonS]

I'd say thats a stocked fish. As far as I can see the pectoral and anal fins are pretty torn up.

 

[csoult]

Stock

 

[pcray1231]

Stocked. Could be a holdover, or a fresh stocky in relatively good shape. But stocked.

 

[evw659]

The stream i was fishing is not stocked. Im not at all trying to argue or prove im right, im just confused. The stocked hatchery trout here in west central pa exhibit none of the qualities ( sharp edged tail, colorful adipose and sharp spotted dorsal fin ) as the fish i have shown. What am i missing here?

 

[pcray1231]

I could probably be convinced, I'm not very good with rainbows. Can say I've only caught them out of 4 different streams in PA (all of them known to have wild bows, but only one of them famous for it), and populations vary, so perhaps this is just a population I've not yet met.

But, the wild bows I have caught have no spots on the tail. The anal and ventral fins are nearly transparant, much moreso than your fish. And while the fins on your fish aren't "beat up", they're not perfect edges either, there's some roughness on the tail as well as the anal fin.

Spotted adipose and dorsal is common on PFBC fish, as is the spotted tail, but I'd allow that perhaps some other populations of wild bows in PA may have spotted tails, I really don't know the streams well enough. Most of my tentative ID is based on the color and condition of the anal and ventral fins.... I have to ask, the stream may not be stocked, but is it known to have wild bows?

Here's a wild one for comparison.

 

[Fishidiot]

It's a good looking 'bow and could certainly be wild. It looks like a lot of the wild bows I see here in the Cumberland Valley. Tough call. I think as trout get larger (esp bows and browns) telling wild from stocked gets much harder. With smaller fish, it's much more obvious.

The fact that the stream you caught him in isn't stocked is a good indicator that it could be wild... however stocked trout can and do migrate around a watershed. The other night I caught a large stocked brookie in a warm water stream while fishing for sunfish - a fish that had obviously migrated miles from upriver areas.
Whether stocked or wild, you've got a very nice rainbow. If the stream in question is known to have a viable population of wild fish, then I'd conclude that's what you've got.

 

[gfen]

If I may piggy back...?

From a stream that is in fact stocked, but does not contain a population of wild rainbow trouts. This is from last June, but I never bothered to ask.

 

[ryguyfi]

I'll defer to the "experts" on this one.

I'll just make a comment on your picture. The main reason pictures don't work on this site is that they're too big. There is a size limit of pictures for them to be attached to posts. Try resizing them in some sort of photo editing software, or just embed them or make a link like you did.

 

[zenherper]

Spotted adipose and dorsal is common on PFBC fish, as is the spotted tail, but I'd allow that perhaps some other populations of wild bows in PA may have spotted tails
Here's a wild one for comparison.

Just to add to the discussion - here is a recent wild bow caught that does display the spots on the adipose, dorsal, and tail fins. I am by no means an expert on this, but I wanted to offer this picture to show there can be a great deal of variation in the wild bows. This one and the one in pcray's photo are quite different in appearance.

 

[ryguyfi]

Zen,

Try using your macro setting (usually a picture of a flower) on your camera next time. It'll focus on the object up close instead of the background. Just a little tip.

 

[zenherper]

ryguyfi wrote:
Zen,

Try using your macro setting (usually a picture of a flower) on your camera next time. It'll focus on the object up close instead of the background. Just a little tip.

Thanks for the advice. I actually don't carry a separate camera on the stream with me. The picture is from my phone. It has a nice camera on it, and has potential, but I am usually just trying to snap a quick photo and get a quick release. If I take my time and let the camera focus, it can take a nice picture. I guess I should be more patient...

 

[bam]

To me, the differences in stocked vs wild bows are most noticeable in the 7-14 inch range. Smaller wild fish and fingerlings both have parr marks and small fins. Larger bows often get discolored and beat up and holdovers can be hard to tell from wild fish.

 

[evw659]

To me, the differences in stocked vs wild bows are most noticeable in the 7-14 inch range. Smaller wild fish and fingerlings both have parr marks and small fins. Larger bows often get discolored and beat up and holdovers can be hard to tell from wild fish.

Thats a good point. you dont see many bows over the 14"-15" range that have the perfect pink fins and parr markings.... which, like you said, makes it pretty difficult to tell a holdover bow of that size from a wild one.

 

[JackM]

It's a rainbow, so who cares? Did he rise to a dry?