Wild vs. Hatchery Trout

[charles]

How can you tell the difference between a hatchery or wild rainbow. I asked a guy at Nimbus hatchery and he said that you can tell be the color of the meat ( not the method I want to use :? ). If someone can find a picture of a wild and a hatchery trout, that would be great. I have googled the subject with little sucess.

Thanks for the help,
Charles

[Ed Wahl]

Sometimes it's easy, as in fins that are worn and torn on the ends from rubbing on the sides of the tanks. However, the ones that survive for a couple of years, the holdovers, look and act like wild trout. Recently planted trout are usually pretty soft, and paler than wild trout. If you fish a stream with both plants and wild trout you'll notice the huge difference in fighting ability. As for the color of the meat, it makes no difference, the meat will turn orange if the trout are eating scuds or crawdads, other wise the meat will be white. Ed

[jbird]

perfect description Ed. I always look at the condition of the fins. If the fins are big and pretty, let it go. If youre not really sure...let it go :D

JAY

[Adam Grace]

If you see white tips on the fins that look to be in perfect shape then it it is wild, I love those white tips.

[charles]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Charles

Heading up to Wrights Lake on Friday with a few of my students, and they are going to want to keep at least some fish, so I thought is would help to know which to take. I will post a report on the Lakes post when I get back.

[Adam Grace]

Good luck Charles!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes ago my brother Dick went up to fish the Silver Fork of the American River near Kyburz Lodge.

He brought home about 5 little trout to cook up for dinner.

He laid them on the grass and took a photo of them.

4 were fat hatchery fish with small fins and one was a smaller fish with larger fins.

It was real obvious in that photo.

If you take a copy of the "Fish Sniffer" magazine and look at all the trout in it you will notice the difference in their fins.

[Hairstacker]

I just don't remember any planted trout going completely ape the way some of the wilds ones do. :shock: :lol:

[BigOkieWhiteBoy916]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Charles

Heading up to Wrights Lake on Friday with a few of my students, and they are going to want to keep at least some fish, so I thought is would help to know which to take. I will post a report on the Lakes post when I get back.

I would hit something else in the crystal basin area. I was up at Wrights Lake last week. Nothing going on. I saw one fish surface and talk to another angler that has been fishing the lake for year and I quote him "Its the worst fishing I've seen in thirty years."

[dtp916]

Hatchery (or some sort of beat up wild fish from the LT?) caught by JT (yes on a Micro May):

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f393/dtp916/FishingwithJT004.jpg

Hatchery - Fly Caster fish from private hatchery:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f393/dtp916/014.jpg

Same strain as above - most Truckee fish this big won't waste their time on a #18 Micro May like this one did: Look at the pectoral fins :shock:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f393/dtp916/020.jpg

WILD - Look at the color :D :D :D This is what it's all about 8)

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f393/dtp916/006.jpg

Most of the hatchery fish I've seen have dull or faded color, worn fins, and rounded tails. Wild fish are bright, strong, colorful, and a true beauty to catch.

[johnson wozniak]

How can you tell the difference between a hatchery or wild rainbow. I asked a guy at Nimbus hatchery and he said that you can tell be the color of the meat ( not the method I want to use :? ). If someone can find a picture of a wild and a hatchery trout, that would be great. I have googled the subject with little sucess.

Thanks for the help,
Charles

This is a pet peeve of mine. I wish hatcheries would fin clip hatchy fish to promotes catch and release.

[Adam Grace]

Here's some pictures of trout with those white tips that I was talking about, notice the large, clean "wild" fins. Also notice the coloration of these fish, wild trout are beautiful.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/ytrou3bias22605.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP2386.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP2727.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/FallRiverMonsterlightenedandretouch.jpg

[bigtj]

On the Truckee I can tell the difference immediately by the fight. Hatchery fish don't fish worth a hoot compared to wild fish. There is no comparison.

[DocEsox]

It's kind of a moot question to some degree. You need to make sure of what you really mean when talking about "hatchery" and "wild" fish as in most waters in the west the "wild" fishes' ancestry is mostly from hatchery fish. Wild simply means they have reproduced in the river naturally....EVEN THOUGH they may have been hatchery fish that reproduced. Unfortunately we have wreaked havoc on so many of our waters that there are few rivers and streams with "native" fish in them....trout which were the indigenous species to a given water. Although as many have stated most first generation hatchery fish have beat up fins and tails. In Alaska whereever they supplement salmon fisheries with stocked fish the anal fin is always clipped off so you know which is a hatchery fish.....some waters permit only keeping of these hatchery fish. Also there are many strains of hatchery trout nowadays which vary quite a bit in appearance.

Brian

[Adam Grace]

Brian, I specifically used the term "wild" to indicate naturally born trout that grew up in that water, not transplanted from a hatchery. It is sad about the native fish left in our western waters but at least our modern day replacements can grow up "wild" eating insect instead of pellets.

Brian, How many trout in Alaska are raised in hatcheries?

[DocEsox]

Adam.....for the most part there is virtually no stocking of trout in Alaska....the exception being the lakes around Anchorage and Fairbanks that see a lot of fishing traffic....these are stocked with triploid rainbows which are generated from coastal rainbows (oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) indigenous to Alaska. There is also some stocking of arctic char and grayling in these same lakes but for the most part Alaska has stayed away from this and also from introducing nonnative species into the water systems.

Brian

PS...a couple of native Alaskan coastal rainbows:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/1a70b4af.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/WillowBow2.jpg

[Adam Grace]

I envy you, those rainbows in Alaska are gorgeous and big!

Thanks for the info.

[dtp916]

Now thats some serious color! 8)

[charles]

Thanks for all the help guys!
Adom-I really see what you mean about those white fins.
Never made it up to Wrights Lake, my students couldn't go and all reports have been bad. May hit the American for stripers and early half pounders tomorrow.

Thanks agian to everybody for scooling this newbe on the subject.

Charles

[Adam Grace]

Charles, better luck with planning your next trip.