Garden State Trout

Mixed up with some wild trout in NJ today, found a nice club brown to go along with it.
PA has been good too! nothing too big tho.

Nice day to be out! I should have gone today to get some exercise and stretch my legs from a long week in the deer stand.

interesting net you have there

Troutman wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:25 am

interesting net you have there

it's very nice! I saw it on ebay and remember seeing it here lol. Theres even some clones of it on sale too.

That's a great brown, congrats!

nice six year old brown and real nice color for a stocker.

Yeah, nice fish! How do you tell whether it's a stocked brown or wild?

See attached photo. It's the biggest brown to come my way yet--about 15 inches. Can anyone say whether it's wild or stocked?

mine was obvious by the pectoral fin, snubbed and worn out. You can see it in my pic. it's not hiding behind my fingers, that's actually how tiny it was. It's kind of surprising how these guys swim without the big pectoral fins; it might explain why this one was not in fast water.

I also found by color which ones can be stocked. Im not 100% on this, but the stocked ones I catch are have more red and brown overall.
The wild ones tend to be overall lighter, red only where the dots are, a smooth tan to silver to yellowish bellow. In addition, stocked browns can have big, messy, black dots.
Wild one:


i think fins grow back, so some stocked holdovers will grow out their fins but still maintain those same colors.

But other than the fins, Im never 100% on stocked vs wild.

It's not 100% but what is? But when you see the dots on a brown trout starting to connect closer to the tail , it's usually a stocked fish .

Jaybird wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:13 am

It's not 100% but what is? But when you see the dots on a brown trout starting to connect closer to the tail , it's usually a stocked fish .

yea i guess even wild trout could somehow have a snub fin if something bites it. The black dots connecting to the tail is a nice observation.

I also find on brown trout, not always as nothing is always, that a red halo on the adipose fin can signal a wild fish as well. Lots of large dots close together is also a sign of a stocked fish.

I'll just comment that coaltrout's photo that began this thread shows something very different than the trout in the following three photos--that fish in the first photo is crowded with black spots--definitely seems like a different variety.

I'll just comment that coaltrout's photo that began this thread shows something very different than the trout in the following three photos--that fish in the first photo is crowded with black spots--definitely seems like a different variety.