Wild Palomino,...possible?

[mtsman]

With the heavy rains here in central Pa I was able to get out to fish several small streams today. Fishing was great. I located one 22-25",...I need to pay him another visit sometime 😉. I also just realized I caught the grand slam of wild trout.

Anyhow, I caught a couple wild rainbows today(7" and 3.5"), lots of wild browns, and finally a wild brookie. However, I saw a 5-6 inch palomino in my secret wild rainbow stream. I tried to catch him to get a photo but he just kept following. I saw him 3 times for sure.

So, Is it possible to have a wild palomino? I did not think so but I never really researched it. 30+ years fishing western, central and north central pa and never seen a 5-6 inch palomino,..?.

Anyone know?

 

[bigjohn58]

YUP! well not really. They just don't exist. Tiger trout (brown/brook mix) can occur naturally I guess while as a palomino can not. Its just a genetic freek that scientists make but if there was such a thing as a wild one here it is! Hatchery excapie but was in the little stream a long long time. My brother caught him quite a few times actually.

 

[pafisherman]

I would tend to agree although I am no expert. My thoughts would be that it certainly would be possible but very rare to have a "wild" true albino trout. But the palomino is not an albino as BigJohn says it is genetic strain from the lab. Great picture of probably the nicest looking one I have ever seen.
Bill A

 

[Fishidiot]

My guess would be that what you saw was a fish with some form of similar pigmentation that somehow occurred naturally - maybe a form of albinism but I don't think it's possible for "palominoism" to occur naturally.

 

[MattBoyer]

Wasn't the first golden rainbow a hatchery fluke that was then bred out with regular rainbows, making a palomino? If it happened once, it could happen again, or at least I would think. It took a long time to breed down the pallies to a true golden, but only because there was only one, so palominos didn't occur naturally, but the first golden did. At least that's how I read it.

Boyer

 

[eggman]

I've taken the tour of the Oswayo hatchery several times and they say a Palomino, which is now called a Golden Rainbow, cannot breed on their own at all. The actual Palomino hybrid, which is a cross between a West Virginia Golden and a western Rainbow, is nearly gone now as they have incorporated several other strains into it over the years.

 

[afishinado]

I'd say it's very unlikely but possible in a stream inhabited with wild rainbows. The rainbows were/are stocked and they carry the genes from their stocked ancestors. Here's info the on "golden rainbow" from the PFBC site:

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/pages/qa/fish/trout_golden.htm

 

[mtsman]

big john- great picture and beautiful fish. The one I saw was 2/3 that size at best.

It may be just some form of natural albinism. Never thought of that.

 

[MattBoyer]

mtsman wrote:
It may be just some form of natural albinism. Never thought of that.

Did it have pink eyes? Also, I don't believe albinos have a stripe, as the albinism is a lack of pigment, whereas a golden is a different color phase, so they still have a stripe.

Boyer

 

[mtsman]

afishinado wrote:
I'd say it's very unlikely but possible in a stream inhabited with wild rainbows. The rainbows were/are stocked and they carry the genes from their stocked ancestors. Here's info the on "golden rainbow" from the PFBC site:

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/pages/qa/fish/trout_golden.htm

Great info. It says they are NOT sterile but just a color variation of O. mykiss.

 

[mtsman]

MattBoyer wrote:

Did it have pink eyes? Also, I don't believe albinos have a stripe, as the albinism is a lack of pigment, whereas a golden is a different color phase, so they still have a stripe.

Boyer

I did not even think to get a close look at its eyes. I do remember thinking that it did seem more cream colored than orange.

 

[FarmerDave]

Basically, there is no reason why it coudn't happen, but there is a lot of reasons why it shouldn't. ... and if those odds are overcome, there are more reasons why it wouldn't last long in the wild.

 

[Squaretail]

Absolutely Farmer. It would be a bullseye for predation its entire existence, kinda like that half dark/half light colored brownie not long ago.
Thats one heck of a trout BigJohn. I can only imagine what it looked like in person.

 

[Spyder20oz]

Is this a wild golden rainbow?

 

[bigjohn58]

We were amazed at how long it stayed in the stream. Like I said we caught that fish several times over almost a year period. You literally could stand 30 yards away and see it glowing in the small hole it lived in (stream is no wider then probably 3 yards across at most where it was). We have no idea how herons or ofsprey didn't get that thing except for the fact that there is so much watercrest that it was able to hide but when we would always see it it was just sitting in the middle of the hole. Thats another reason why I don't think a palomino would exist in the wild because even if it did it wouldn't last long before its eaten. They are such a target like I remember when they stocked the so called state record palomino a few years ago in Kettle Creek...it was killed before season even started by an eagle or ofsprey but was too big to cary off and just laid on the shore's edge. Also there is a big difference between a palomino (which is really ugly and more of a dull white/grey or something like that) and a golden rainbow (more yellowish and even stands out more then a palomino). I can't tell you exactly but I think the golden rainbow is even more of a genetic freek then the palomino but I could be wrong. I can remember when I was a kid when they switched over from palominos to golden rainbows. I think pretty much most of whats stocked now are golden rainbows...man I'm glad I don't hardly fish Kettle Creek anymore and just stick to Fishing Creek and some of the other smaller streams in the area. I don't see those white/yellow things anymore lol.

 

[highsticker]

The statement on the PFBC site is:

Golden rainbow trout and palomino rainbow trout are not sterile hybrids, they are simply color variations of rainbow trout

Which is to say that palomino rainbow trout are simply color variations of rainbow trout. They CAN breed. It is entirely possible that a stocked palomino bred with a typical color morph rainbow and one of the offspring survived.

I'd bet it was simply a mistake at the hatchery and a young palomino was mixed in the rainbow trough and got released in the stream you were fishing. I see it all the time at the hatchery.

 

[Mike]

Yes, wild goldens are possible and have occurred in Pa. Specifically, there was a fairly large year class produced in Cold Run, Schuylkill Co. a few years ago. A recheck of the stream a couple of years later revealed that they were gone. As Farmer Dave said, they didn't last long. This is also true with the occasional wild rainbow fingerlings that we find in Schuylkill and York Co "freestoners." We find fingerlings but rarely adults. We have only found adults in Codorus Creek.