Trout Id

mikevp

Member
I went to NC on vacation this past June. While there I was able to fish in a small private stream behind our rental and caught the trout pictured below. It was over 19" and my best to date. I assumed it was a brown but after showing a few people pictures it made me second guess.
Any ideas on what type this is?
 

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NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
100% Stocker brook trout.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Thank you! I'm new to trout fishing but how do tell the difference between a stocked and native trout?
First of all, there are no 19" native brook trout floating around out there these days. The average adult native brook trout is about 5"-6" long. Second of all, native brook trout live in tiny headwater streams. Third of all, that fish has absolutely no color. It is a pitiful, washed-out fish raised in a concrete pond on trout pellets. Here is what a native brook trout in western NC looks like:

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See any difference?
 

Cmp1

BANNED
First of all, there are no 19" native brook trout floating around out there these days. The average adult native brook trout is about 5"-6" long. Second of all, native brook trout live in tiny headwater streams. Third of all, that fish has absolutely no color. It is a pitiful, washed-out fish raised in a concrete pond on trout pellets. Here is what a native brook trout looks like:

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See any difference?
Think there might be some natives up here NCH?
 

mikevp

Member
That makes sense why I couldn't Id it on Google images and descriptions. Google almost convinced me it was a hybrid or tiger trout.... so it's just domesticated.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Actually, after a closer look, I think your fish is actually a stocker tiger trout (brook x brown hybrid.) They have been stocking a few of them the last couple years.
 

Buckman18

Senior Member
100% Stocker brook trout.

You sure thats not one of those crossed brook and browns some hatcheries are producing these days? "Tiger Trout?"
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Thats what I was thinking. Looks like a washed out tiger trout. Does NC fisheries do such a thing?
They had an "accident" a couple years ago with some brooks and browns getting accidentally introduced to each other in the hatchery, as the game warden told me after we caught several stocker tigers out of Snowbird year before last.
 

northgeorgiasportsman

Moderator
Staff member
Yes, I think the total absence of spots and the vermiculation all the way down to the belly and on the gill plate would indicate tiger.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
No but private hatcheries sometimes raise them
Yes, NCWRC stocks some tigers now and then, just not very often. Year before last they dumped a bunch.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Think there might be some natives up here NCH?
Yes. Plenty, I would say. They will be the northern strain instead of the Southern Appalachian strain/subspecies we have here.
 

mikevp

Member
I didn't realize there is so much color variation between stocked and native fish. Do stocked fish eventually become feral and develop different behaviors, feeding preferences and more pronounced colorations? This explains why all the rainbows I caught in Cherokee looked different and more bland than pictures I've seen.
 
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