big rainbows and little browns?

[acabtp]

Seems like we are all catching the nice big rainbows that they stocked last week.

But I haven't seen much talk about how they also stocked some really small browns like this one. I caught several today and they are definitely freshly stocked, but smaller than legal sized and less than half an inch thick behind the heads. I thought that the fall stocking was all 2+ year old trout, but these are all really young. I guess they were cleaning out some of the tanks at pequest. Fine with me though, since they should hold over well and the more trout in our streams and rivers the better. Anybody else seeing fresh little browns (or other little stockers)?

[FASTEDDIE29]

Im not so sure that Brown came off a truck. We have tons of Brown Trout in the rivers this time of year. Also our Brown Trout tend to look like baseball bats after they've spawned out, very skinny bodies with very large heads. caught quite a few very long Browns in the past 20-26 inches that would only weigh 2-4 lbs after spawning.

[shucker]

They didnt stock any small browns they are either holdovers from the spring or wild.They sure look nicer then the stockies though.

[acabtp]

i remain convinced they are freshly stocked for three reasons: they showed up out of nowhere along with the big rainbows, are the wrong size for wild fish this time of year, and are in terrible shape.

i fish the spot year round and have been there 2-3 times per week in the past month... i suppose that it is possible that there have been all of these tiny browns and that they were just all hiding with lockjaw before and then decided to start getting caught one after another yesterday, but i find that unlikely.

the browns were small, but all similarly sized, too small to be holdovers.

the biggest thing was their condition though: very rough.

for comparison, this is the color, size, and condition of an actual wild brown at this time of year:


i already emailed DFW to ask if they put these in. my question was if anybody else was seeing these little guys around unexpectedly?

[Wilson]

They are "culls" or "extras" from the hatchery. They put them in the rivers and lakes rather then kill them.
I found a mother load of them on the Musky a couple of years ago.
They make it hard to get your bait in front of a biggin

[Eskimo]

I guess you could use those runts for bait.

[Billfish715]

It is quite possible but unlikely that the browns were part of a fall load of fish. Look at the pectoral fins. They don't look like they have raceway burns like stocked fish. The color is more like a native or holdover fish. The strain of brown trout that is stocked is different from the native fish. That change came about many years ago when the fisheries biologists found a more suitable strain with a quicker and stronger growth rate. There might have been some fish that made it into a load of fall stockers but with the weight of the "biguns" in the truck, I don't think they would have risked puting more weight into the load. Years ago they did a third week of stocking. It was when they culled the surplus 4"-5" rainbows (mostly) and dumped them into the major streams. This eliminated overcrowding in the raceways and stimulated the growth of the spring stockers. The hatchery has also released other surplus fish when the occasion merited that action. Those stockings were not announced and fish were dumped into most of the conveniently located big streams. There is concern among biologists regarding the influx of stocked fish which might deteriorate the gene pool of the native trout in those streams. While it is possible for that to happen in smaller streams, the likelihood of wholescale interbreeding in the major streams is less probable.