Annoying Gnats and Beautiful Brookies

[Maurice]

troutbert wrote:

Maurice wrote:

BrookieChaser wrote:

Brookies have light markings on a dark background, browns have dark markings on a light background.

^^^ This is all u have to remember.

End of story!

Agreed. If you learn that, you will be able to tell browns from brookies correctly every time.

The first time I heard this was when Troutbert said it. I just thought credit should be properly placed.

 

[streamerguy1]

troutbert wrote:

Maurice wrote:

BrookieChaser wrote:

Brookies have light markings on a dark background, browns have dark markings on a light background.

^^^ This is all u have to remember.

End of story!

Agreed. If you learn that, you will be able to tell browns from brookies correctly every time.

Yep. Also pike and muskies....

 

[jifigz]

The brown in the top picture looks...a little off to say the least. I have indeed also caught freshly stocked brown trout that have looked like that. I think that it is also probably just strange genetics but a biologist should know.

 

[troutbert]

Maurice wrote:

troutbert wrote:

Maurice wrote:

BrookieChaser wrote:

Brookies have light markings on a dark background, browns have dark markings on a light background.

^^^ This is all u have to remember.

End of story!

Agreed. If you learn that, you will be able to tell browns from brookies correctly every time.

The first time I heard this was when Troutbert said it. I just thought credit should be properly placed.

Thanks. I heard it from someone else years ago, found it helpful, and just pass it along.

 

[jwb123]

Jifigz,

Here's another brown from the same stream. This one measures about twelve inches. There's a surprising number of them in there. I too don't think it sees a lot of pressure.

 

[jifigz]

jwb123 wrote:
Jifigz,

Here's another brown from the same stream. This one measures about twelve inches. There's a surprising number of them in there. I too don't think it sees a lot of pressure.

When you say that that fish is another brown from the same stream are you implying the stream that I was fishing? If so I am curious to see whether you have guessed which stream I was fishing correctly. PM with the name of the stream if you want and we can verify. If you are from around where I live the information that I gave might have given it away.

 

[salmonoid]

jifigz wrote:
The brown in the top picture looks...a little off to say the least. I have indeed also caught freshly stocked brown trout that have looked like that. I think that it is also probably just strange genetics but a biologist should know.

They are both browns but with strange hatchery mutated genetics. They are the extreme of what I call the pixelated browns. Their spots are blocky, wavy conglomerations, whereas most wild browns have round spots. Whatever the biologist may say, they are unlike any tiger I have ever seen.

On the subject matter, bug netting helps. But I'm not sure it handles no-seeums. My hands and face were destroyed by them at dusk the past few days. Doping with toxic chemicals would probably do the trick in keeping them at bay, as would some of the other remedies mentioned. I figured inhaling a little toxic cigar smoke was probably no worse than anything else people subject themselves to, and that's what works for me. Except the cigars eventually burn up..

 

[geebee]

jifigz wrote:
The brown in the top picture looks...a little off to say the least. I have indeed also caught freshly stocked brown trout that have looked like that. I think that it is also probably just strange genetics but a biologist should know.

they both look like Marbled Brown Trout to me :

FYI there are 14 known types of brown trout - and many of them are cross breeds with European char or salmons.

i think those two fish are brookie/brown hybrids that have bred with a brownie. probbaly in a hatchery.

 

[wildtrout2]

streamerguy1 wrote:
I too have caught browns with vermiculations, but only PFBC hatchery browns.

I'm pretty sure you could end up almost any type of markings on a stocked trout, but I've yet to see a wild brown with vermiculations. Spots that blended in and connected, yes, but not true vermiculations. I'd love to see a pic of a WILD brown that has them.

 

[sarce]

I have seen a handful of brookies without vermiculations, especially on smaller fish, so I always tell people the light on dark/dark on light trick (I almost certainly learned that on here as well).

Edit: it's not so much that those markings are missing on some small brookies as it is the fish just isn't big enough for them to be recognized for what they are. Although I have caught a couple 6-7" brookies that had very, very faint vermiculations.

 

[Skeet6]

Very interesting, thanks!
Mike B

wildtrout2 wrote:

.
The never fail distinction between brookies and browns is simple, only brookies have vermiculations (squiggly markings) on their back. Browns do not.

I never go fishing without a couple of headnets, never.

 

[lowkey]

Species are not cut and dry categories in reality. Science can only distinguish so far and then the classifications, that is the lines that separate classes, become fuzzy.

Even that last paragraph seems fuzzy which suggests another concept which I won't pursue.

Bottom line, brook trout, are earths prettiest creature and that's a scientific fact.

 

[Swattie87]

Easiest way to tell them apart IMO: Brookies are gems, Brownies are not.

sg's fish in question pictured in the thread previously are stocked Browns.

 

[troutbert]

lowkey wrote:
Species are not cut and dry categories in reality. Science can only distinguish so far and then the classifications, that is the lines that separate classes, become fuzzy.

That's true in some cases.

But not in the case of what we are talking about, brown trout and brook trout. These are two very distinct species. And anglers can learn to tell them apart fairly easily. The two species are not mushed together genetically.

It is pretty rare for brooks & browns to interbreed and produce offspring (tiger trout) and the tigers are infertile.

So, in the streams you will not find populations of mixed genetics brook/brown crosses.

 

[barbless]

My key is:

brook trout never have black spots.

Brown trout never have yellow spots.

I get the confusion, though. Other than that, small brook trout and small brown trout really resemble each other if they're wild and taken from dark, shaded streams.

Also: "polluted with brook trout"- that's no way to describe that situation! Back to English Comp class with you! Find another metaphor!

 

[jifigz]

barbless wrote:

Also: "polluted with brook trout"- that's no way to describe that situation! Back to English Comp class with you! Find another metaphor!

Come on now...lol. I majored in English and have a degree in it....can my choice of polluted really be that bad of a selection?

 

[jifigz]

With that being said I understand the negativity of the word....we will use stacked, or loaded, or overrun...or....whatever.

 

[pro4mance]

Stacked like strippers for $1 bills ?

 

[jifigz]

pro4mance wrote:
Stacked like strippers for $1 bills ?

Sounds like an accurate and image -rich description to me....we will use it.