Question on Wild Brook/Brown Coloring

[jarebearbinks]

This past year I have been getting obsessed with fishing for wild fish here in PA. I’m based in the Schuylkill County area and have been fishing many class A and natural reproduction streams around the area. I have noticed with many of the fish I catch, in some rivers/streams, have this sort of “white wash” of scales where it almost seems like there is a loss of color in some scales. Does anyone know what causes this or is it a perfectly normal occurrence? I haven’t been able to find anything online about the subject. Thanks!

 

[wildtrout2]

That's a great question. It does seem odd. Maybe diet? Mike would be the best person to possibly answer it for you.

 

[hemlock]

When fishing waters impacted by AMD, i've noticed the "washed out" look. I always assumed the water quality caused this in some manner.

 

[salmonoid]

I'm seeing lighter colored fish in your pictures and I often find that fish that live in waters with lighter colored base sediment and rocks and cobbles will have colors that adapt to their surroundings (just like fish that spend a lot of there time under rocks will often look coal black). I've often thought as well that the silvery fish might also spend some of their time in larger waters. I caught a wild brown a number of years ago about this time of year that looked almost like an Atlantic salmon, from a tributary to the Susquehanna River and I wondered if that fish had just moved out of the bigger body of water?

The AMD theory would also fit with your location.

 

[troutbert]

When fishing waters impacted by AMD, i've noticed the "washed out" look. I always assumed the water quality caused this in some manner.

Streams affected by AMD often have light colored streambeds because of iron deposition and lack of an algae slime. The trout adjust their coloration, for camouflage.

Fish that are in waters open to the sun typically are lighter in color, more silvery, than fish in shaded locations.

In some of the photos, the fish are over-exposed, making them look paler in the photo than they actually were.

 

[jeffroey]

I posted this a little while back. It prompted a similar question and Mike weighed in indicating habitat and stress may be factors:

From Light to Darkness

Happened to be browsing my fish porn from the past couple of years and although the two attached pix are from entirely different watersheds in different years, I think they represent my most pale and darkest Brookie I've landed and photoed. I thought this was interesting and I hope the likes...

www.paflyfish.com

 

[Swattie87]

When fishing waters impacted by AMD, i've noticed the "washed out" look. I always assumed the water quality caused this in some manner.

This was my first thought too. For whatever reason, that purple undertone with a white belly is very common on AMD waters. Not so much the Brown, but if you just showed me the pictures of the Brookies and didn’t reveal their location, I would have guessed Skuke County.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Just for fun: these are all NH brookies caught from the same stream in the same afternoon. The first one was on a flat open meadow, then the others are progressively working up into an increasingly dense forest.

 

[5footfenwick]

Diet plus light level. We call the ones in the light orange sherberts, and the ones in the shade hemlock trout. Referring to brookies.

You can sometimes spot a wild brownie hiding underneath a ledge half in the sunshine, half in the shade. If you get lucky enough and pull off the spot and stalk. Once landed, the brownie will have a line right where the sunshine hit the shade.

A true half and half ☝️

Belly hidden, back exposed ☝️

Diet also intensifies the colors. Crayfish will brighten the colors. Think diet and pink and flamingos. I wish I still had the photo. But once an ex-girlfriend caught a truly stunning 11” male brook trout. The trout had multiple large lumps in its stomach. The picture which only she has at this point, framed 20x30”…. Laughably shows the trout crapping out a whole crayfish dangling from the anus vent. I tried to get it back in the breakup, but her mother insisted on keeping it. I miss that brook trout.
~5footfenwick

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Trout and all fish can adapt their colors within reason to better blend into their surroundings. Put a trout in a white bucket and ser how quickly their colors pale. Diet also plays a large role, especially in the vibrant reds in some streams. Think browns in BFC for example.

 

[Swattie87]

Diet plus light level. We call the ones in the light orange sherberts, and the ones in the shade hemolock trout. Referring to brookies.

You can sometimes spot a wild brownie hiding underneath a ledge half in the sunshine, half in the shade. If you get lucky enough and pull off the spot and stalk. Once landed, the brownie will have a line right where the sunshine hit the shade. View attachment 1641235549
A true half and half ☝️
View attachment 1641235550
Belly hidden, back exposed ☝️

Diet also intensifies the colors. Crayfish will brighten the colors. Think diet and pink and flamingos. I wish I still had the photo. But once an ex-girlfriend caught a truly stunning 11” male brook trout. The trout had multiple large lumps in its stomach. The picture which only she has at this point, framed 20x30”…. Laughably shows the trout crapping out a whole crayfish dangling from the anus vent. I tried to get it back in the breakup, but her mother insisted on keeping it. I miss that brook trout.
~5footfenwick

Had always wondered what caused that. Great post.

I only seem to notice it on Browns…Because Brookies are always out in the wide open!

 

[HopBack]

This was my first thought too. For whatever reason, that purple undertone with a white belly is very common on AMD waters. Not so much the Brown, but if you just showed me the pictures of the Brookies and didn’t reveal their location, I would have guessed Skuke County.

I agree, brook trout in schuylkill county are some of the dullest trout in the state. I don’t think diet matters so much in these streams. All of the brown trout I catch are wonderfully colored.

 

[5footfenwick]

Trout and all fish can adapt their colors within reason to better blend into their surroundings. Put a trout in a white bucket and ser how quickly their colors pale. Diet also plays a large role, especially in the vibrant reds in some streams. Think browns in BFC for example.

I think in the creek you mentioned, this is a combination of Grannoms and sculpin’s. That diet seems to equal and sometimes exceed crayfish diet related coloration, at least in browns.

One from the creek and red coloration you mentioned.

 

[jarebearbinks]

This was my first thought too. For whatever reason, that purple undertone with a white belly is very common on AMD waters. Not so much the Brown, but if you just showed me the pictures of the Brookies and didn’t reveal their location, I would have guessed Skuke County.

Almost all of the brookies I have caught in the skuke all have that purple undertone you mentioned. It definitely seems as though the lighting for the picture highlights this sometimes more than it actually is.

 

[jarebearbinks]

Here is a fish caught in the same stream as the first one in my original post.

Doesn’t really have the same washed out look as the rest. As others have mentioned it is probably a combination of water quality, stress, and color of the stream bed where the fish lives. Definitely seems much more rare to get a quality colored brookie in these streams in Schuylkill County than not. It’s unfortunate because some of these fish look to be very healthy, just not the prettiest. Thanks for all the replies!

 

[Andrwhite610]

I fish these waters and find the same with Brookies. Also someone I chat with about fishing sent me photos of Brookies from a skook stream that had to be 12”. They were long and skinny with just the palest, boring color. The stream they were In was veryyyy orange. That’s from AMD from what I understand. Very interesting that they still live in that type of water.

They don’t look like that in all the streams tho🙂

 

[Andrwhite610]

Thought this one had a unique look. From the same watershed.

 

[Bamboozle]

Two observations, #1:

2000 years ago a friend & I were scouting a small Luzerne County stream that was highlighted as a wild trout or Class A stream on a "Trout Fishing in Pennsylvania" map rolled out around the same time as Operation Future.​

​

After happily discovering two full, cold cans of beer by a bridge footer, I spied a riser on this small, heavily stained tannic water stream. I managed to catch that riser which turned out to be an almost black brookie with bright red spots and blue halos.​

​

A year or so later I went back to that creek and caught similarly colored brookies. This was before smart phones, small cameras and me having any interest in fish pictures so I have no photos of these brookies.​

​

Ironically this creek hasn't been on the Class A or Wild Trout Reproduction Lists in decades. ​

#2:

The fish below were caught on a Carbon County Class A on the same day. The first fish came from a section of the stream where the bottom is very lightly colored (you can see it in the photo) with minimal cover while the 2nd fish was caught further upstream in a shady area with a darker bottom.​

To the best of my knowledge this stream has never been impacted by AMD nor does it have that appearance anywhere along its length.​

You can draw your own conclusions:​

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

I've been told it's a combination of natural selection, adaptation to overhead shade/light, and adaptation to the color of the creek-bottom. Many years ago, my sister-in-law caught a large, totally green trout in Pine Creek. My father-in-law wouldn't let her keep it since he couldn't identify it. A WCO later told him it was a holdover palomino that changed colors because it was in the water for so long.

 

[Bamboozle]

...Many years ago, my sister-in-law caught a large, totally green trout in Pine Creek. My father-in-law wouldn't let her keep it since he couldn't identify it. A WCO later told him it was a holdover palomino that changed colors because it was in the water for so long.

Ahhh, the elusive Pennsylvania palogreeno trout...

Maybe something that should be included in a super elusive PA Stocked Trout Grand Slam.