finally get to have a brookie adventure

[pcray1231]

I had a fish I caught repeatedly over a few years with 3 spots. All perfectly in a row. Looked like Orion's belt, haha. Same lie every time.

Skuke trib, and I know you've fished the stream many times.

I've never seen a NW PA fish with a single row. But some of them don't have a lot of spots. I have seen single row patterns in both the D and Susquehanna drainages, quite frequently actually.

I've seen fish, in all drainages, with a whole lot of spots, but I don't think I ever counted 6 rows. Though at that point I might just take it to be random orientation rather than rowed.

 

[StarvinMarvin]

had one with four in this same outing but he slipped through before the pic cause I mentioned catching again he would be an easy disticntion

 

[FarmerDave]

Interesting discussion. I never paid much attention to the spots and not that I think of it., I don't remember ever catching native brook trout east of the divide unless you count Connecticut and to me those looked about the same.

I had however noticed differences in coloration of trout in certain drainage. For example, I know of one Clarion River trib where the orange sides are more of a pinkish, almost a deep fuchsia color. the forest around it was dominated with hemlock.

I would guess the fish in the OP were from a different stream for a couple reasons.

1. Different coloration.
2. The stream I was talking about is posted. Or at least it was, and likely still is. I used to sneak in there decades ago.

If I were to guess on the OPS stream, I'd guess that his stream is actually a trib of a trib of the Clarion. I'm not saying anything else and if I was right, it was just a very lucky guess.;-)

 

[pcray1231]

Dave, the OP said it was a Clarion trib.

For the purposes of my "analysis", that does mean Allegheny drainage. I have generally believed that overall coloration, meaning deepness of reds, greens, blues, yellows, etc., is mostly environmental and diet, rather than genetic. I could be wrong on that. It's also variable by time of year, both due to diet and hormones.

 

[Chaz]

Pat here is a fish from the same stream. It has quite a few more spots then what you describe. I suppose that what I'm saying is don't count on spots as a indication of where the fish is from.
I just posted a link to survey results of a couple of un-assessed stream in the ANF that has a pic of a brookie that shows the spot pattern clearly. It's in the Conservation forum.

 

[FarmerDave]

pcray1231 wrote:
Dave, the OP said it was a Clarion trib.

For the purposes of my "analysis", that does mean Allegheny drainage. I have generally believed that overall coloration, meaning deepness of reds, greens, blues, yellows, etc., is mostly environmental and diet, rather than genetic. I could be wrong on that. It's also variable by time of year, both due to diet and hormones.

It is true that he said that and I did see it. But I just have this gut feeling that it was actually a trib of a trib of the Clarion.;-)

When he said forest, I just had a feeling he meant Cook Forest instead of ANF and that was my old stomping grounds.

As far as the rest of that goes, I wasn't arguing with you. In fact, have not said anything that disagrees with what you said. It all sounded reasonable to me.

When I said I hadn't noticed, it was because I hadn't looked all that close.

Read avatar.

 

[StarvinMarvin]

Ha no Dave no where near there. Different state forest.

 

[pcray1231]

Chaz, I don't consider a spot "count" as an indicator. I've seen both very few and a whole lot of spots in all of the above. It's more how they are arranged.

In regards to your fish, yeah, the patterns on that go low, and encroach upon the belly. Sharp tail markings in an arc as well. I would have guessed that fish NOT to have come from the Allegheny drainage. I'm curious. When you say "same stream", do you mean same as the OP, as in Clarion trib? Or do you mean same as your 6 line fish, or same as my 3 spot fish (i.e. Susquehanna or D. systems). I'm not saying the method is foolproof, but I'd be honestly surprised if that one came from the Allegheny drainage. Doesn't even look like a tweener.

 

[Chaz]

pcray1231 wrote:
When you say "same stream", do you mean same as the OP, as in Clarion trib? Or do you mean same as your 6 line fish, or same as my 3 spot fish (i.e. Susquehanna or D. systems).

 

[Mountainbrookie]

Here are some pictures I have of natives from each watershed...

Allegheny Watershed (I have more but not stored online)

Susquehanna Watershed

If anything I'm seeing more of the large yellow spots on the Susquehanna Drainage fish.