Kish Creek Mifflin County; 4/13/2019

[MKern]

Opening day.

Mid afternoon, wasn't planning on fishing but my wife encouraged me to go.

Caught 8, all subsurface on either a PT nymph or a caddis pupa.

Caddis were everywhere in the air. Actually, I have never witnessed that many at on time.

BWO's present as well.

Caught this monster that is debatable to be wild. She taped out at just under 21".

 

[lycoflyfisher]

While there is a chance that could be a holdover fish, I would feel confident that it has been in the stream for a long time. Probably more than a year if indeed it is a holdover.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Nice report and good looking fish that has def been around a while if not wild!

 

[MKern]

It was heftier than the picture gives credit to.

No eye spot, but had red on the adipose fin; a lot of red actually.

That copper color near the tail is my hold up.

It was from an unstocked section of a wild stream. But there are stocked fish around. I caught a couple bows too.

 

[troutbert]

From the pectoral fin, it looks like a stocked trout.

What did the caddis look like? Body color, size etc.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Stocked holdover or wild: Either way, it's a hack of a nice trout!

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Gorgeous fish Mike. I have yet to catch one that nice out of that particular stream though I know they are in there.

 

[MKern]

Troutbert,

The body was brown and the wings a mottled brown. I believe them to be grannoms.

Literally hundreds of thousands in a few hundred yard stretch. If I held my rod still 6 or more would land on it as if it were a branch.

 

[troutbert]

MKern wrote:
Troutbert,

The body was brown and the wings a mottled brown. I believe them to be grannoms.

Literally hundreds of thousands in a few hundred yard stretch. If I held my rod still 6 or more would land on it as if it were a branch.

Good stuff. Thanks for the info.

The huge numbers makes it sound like grannoms.

And grannom wings are mottled brown.

But the brown body color surprises me. Usually grannoms on the limestone streams in our area (Penns, Bald Eagle, lower Spring, Little J) have bodies that are charcoal black.

Tan caddis have tan bodies, but usually don't start hatching until late April.

If you turn over rocks in the riffles, you will see grannom cases if they are there. If you don't see grannom cases, then maybe it's another type of caddis.

I hope they are grannoms, because they are indicators of good water quality.

 

[MKern]

They may have been more of a charcoal color. Even with all of them around I didn't study any up close.

 

[wbranch]

Based on the good condition of the caudal fin I'd venture to say if it isn't wild it has been in the stream quite a long time. Great looking brown and whatever the pedigree it is a darn nice trout.

 

[Tups]

Congrats. A great fish no doubt, but not likely to be streambred. The wild browns within that watershed have an entirely different physical appearance. They are much more silvery with far fewer spots and are unlikely to have any spots at all on their caudal fin. Most likely a long term holdover from one of the stockings.