Wild or Holdover?

[1wt]

Maurice or Fishidiot (or another expert),

Is this a wild trout? And how can I tell? Yellow color and what about the fins?

Caught last year at Muddy Creek. About 19" (next to a 1wt Superfine rod ..... so it might look bigger than it really is?)

Thanks,
1wt

​

 

[PennKev]

Ummm, maybe not even a holdover?

Good condition stockie.

 

[Phish_On]

Really tough to tell form the pic. Maybe a little red on the adipose? Or just the refection from the rocks? Slight eye spot, amber fins, although the fins are a little rough, but again tough to tell. Either way a good fish. freshly stocked, holdie, or wild.

 

[1wt]

Phish_On wrote:
Either way a good fish. freshly stocked, holdie, or wild.

Thanks, Phish,

It doesn't really matter that much to me anyway. All trout are so much fun to me on a fly rod!

I seem to catch quite a few trout, and it seems to me that the "yellow" ones jump out of the water (sometimes 3' like a steelhead) and they just seem to be very healthy and much better fighters?

Spring like tomorrow ....... I have a feeling that 2013 will be a very good year for fly fishing?

 

[Maurice]

Definitely not wild.

My guess goes to state stocked brown, in the water a few months.

Caudal is nearly cleaned up.

The fish has pretty good weight still so I am guessing it was caught in late spring. (didn't hold over the winter or summer)

Guessing female based on white belly and mouth size too.

We did a holdover stocking in fall 2011 Probably no 19'ers though.

 

[McSneek]

Upside down stocker.

 

[Maurice]

McSneek wrote:
Upside down stocker.

:-D

 

[PatrickC]

It looks stocked to me, but a nice catch nonetheless!

 

[WildTigerTrout]

It looks like a stocked fish to me but a real nice one.

 

[Mike]

Freshly stocked fish by all appearances.

 

[Chaz]

Why is a photobucket window popping up when I click on the fish? Couldn't bring it up from PB.

 

[Maurice]

Chaz,

Right click on the image and touch "get image info" then copy the url and paste into browser address window. Then you can blow it up by holding down the CRTL button and rolling the wheel on your mouse (or pressing the +).

What I find disturbing about the picture (besides the upside down fish) is the use of a full large arbor reel on a 1 wt rod (cork and ring reel seat). Thats just out of wack.

 

[Maurice]

Here is a similar fish I got yesterday that I believe has survived over the summer and winter. Otherwise it must have been stocked last week. (unlikely)

Its about 17", Look at tail condition, and white halos around the black spots. Also looks like a mail pouch chew in its cheek. (so there is that....) And it has lost that fatty look. Just a solid fish.

 

[Maurice]

OK here is another holdover, survived the summer, winter and a raptor attack (talon marks both sides).

Likely this fish has been in the water almost a year. Took a beadhead after chowing down on stoneflies. Every time I would put this fish down with my stone I would wade downstream and he would rise again. So I went up and nymphed him. Just saw it drift to the right when my sighter went by and I lifted. Solid hook up!

I never would have caught it had I waited for the line to move. It was like that all day. I missed a bunch of soft takes. Anyway, here is the fish.

 

[PennKev]

Maurice wrote:
OK here is another holdover, survived the summer, winter and a raptor attack (talon marks both sides).

Likely this fish has been in the water almost a year. Took a beadhead after chowing down on stoneflies. Every time I would put this fish down with my stone I would wade downstream and he would rise again. So I went up and nymphed him. Just saw it drift to the right when my sighter went by and I lifted. Solid hook up!

And by what criteria do you determine that this fish isn't wild? I've caught a lot of wild fish that looked much like that in color, fin condition, etc. It is also not a very large fish which could be taken as in indication of wildness.

Just curious to hear what you used to determine that this was a stocked fish. These threads always seem to end up producing a million different opinions on the criteria used to determine stocked vs. wild.

 

[osprey]

Was it dead when you took the pic? 19" are just little ones???? That fish is Nice..........whatever.

 

[Maurice]

PennKev wrote:

Maurice wrote:
OK here is another holdover, survived the summer, winter and a raptor attack (talon marks both sides).

Likely this fish has been in the water almost a year. Took a beadhead after chowing down on stoneflies. Every time I would put this fish down with my stone I would wade downstream and he would rise again. So I went up and nymphed him. Just saw it drift to the right when my sighter went by and I lifted. Solid hook up!

And by what criteria do you determine that this fish isn't wild? I've caught a lot of wild fish that looked much like that in color, fin condition, etc. It is also not a very large fish which could be taken as in indication of wildness.

Just curious to hear what you used to determine that this was a stocked fish. These threads always seem to end up producing a million different opinions on the criteria used to determine stocked vs. wild.

Kev,

No eye spot, no red spots, many, many black spots. and the length vs weight ratio point to a stocked fish.

Out co-op nursery stocks brown trout usually in the 9-12" range. they are plump but not long. They resemble the spotting/coloration of this fish and never have red spots. When in the water a while they lose the weight/plumpness and slim down to more muscle. Usually that translates to this appearance. with brownish/orangeish lat line spots and an overabundance of black spots.

Sure the fins clean up and the adipose gets tinged with orange(usually) and red in the fall along with red flanking and even some of the non-lat line spots will infuse red.

 

[pcray1231]

Agree with Maurice. The OP is a stocked fish. Not even a holdover, stocked fairly recently. Nice fish, though, congrats.

Maurice's #13 definitely has stocked origins, but could be a holdover. Dark, frayed fins. None of the wild markers such as the adipose, eye spot, bright red spots, etc. Decent overall color, and the shape, suggests holdover, so I'd agree with Maurice here too. But if I errored, it's on the side of it being a fresh stockie rather than a holdover.

#14 is pretty much the same as #13. But the fins are MUCH better. While fin color varies with seasons, that translucent quality is present on virtually all wild browns I have caught, and absent on freshly stocked fish. It may develop with time in the stream. I again agree with Maurice that it's a holdover, but would allow that it could be wild.

Both are fairly typical of the modern PFBC strain, and atypical of many wild strains. So even if #14 were wild, it's likely from fairly recent stocked progeny. I put little actual faith in that, though, because the wild strains vary so much and I know nothing about what wild strain may be in Muddy Creek.

 

[Chaz]

Maurice probably stocked it. HE HE!

 

[Maurice]

Chaz wrote:
Maurice probably stocked it. HE HE!

There is a distinct possibility that I did.....