Weird trout

[troutdude]

First of all, I had no intention of trying to slam the forum Troutdude. Quite the opposite. Stocked rainbow, wow. You guys might be right about that. It sure looked 100 million times different than the others, though. I know you all aren't from the Carolinas. Most of you know a lot more about fish than I do, and that's why I posted this thread. That fish was always a mystery to me, and unlike 99% of my fish, I actually had a photo of it. Thanks again for all the responses.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. Perhaps I read too much into things (i.e. "interpretation"). Hard to tell sometimes, without seeing body language. My apologies.

Or, I guess that I can just shift the blame to the voices in my head (re: my tagline). :shock::shock:

 

[halibuthitman]

That is indeed just a nose bumper stocker rainbow, some hatcherys have viewing windows into their tanks, those hatcherys produce thousands of these flat grill rainbows becouse the fish run into the glass constantly, just go to cabellas or bass pro shops store and look at the bow's they have in their tanks and you will go... oh wow.. those flat nosed fish are rainbows? as for the spots, just a very common thing on shallow creeks and rivers with lots of limestone and freestone bottom.. fish also adjust their skin to their surroundings, creek trout will almost always be just stunning, while lake fish often are very washed out and boring.. the fish in the picture looks like a triploid rainbow to me-

 

[Riverfreak]

Hatchery Rainbow

Hatchery Rainbow

I am not an expert but do have a fisheries degree. I have worked around and with a lot of hatcheries and have seen a lot of deformations similar to your fish in numerous hatchery rainbows. The heavy spotting on the belly and tail is uncommon but the smashed nose is quite common in fish that have spent time in the concrete walls of a hatchery. Given that it was bigger than the others you were catching it was probably a hold over from a previous plant, possibly months before or even the previous year. The coloring might be spawning related (not necessarily spawning at the time you were fishing but possibly earlier in the Spring) where as the ones you were catching were probably not sexually mature and a lot lighter. Or........ resident fish also take on the color of the stream bed / lake bed they are in. It takes a while for this to happen and if your fish had been in the stream awhile it would have likely taken on a darker coloration than the hatchery fish that had only been in there a short time. There is also a disease (Bacterial Kidney Disease) that is sometimes found in hatchery fish that can cause weird deformation of the body. I would be shocked if it were not a rainbow.

 

[ClearCreek]

For those of you that think the fish is a brook trout: - Brook trout (and other chars like lake trout, bull trout, etc.) have a dark background color with light colored spots. The trouts (rainbow, cutthroat, brown, etc.) have a light colored background with dark spots. This is a sure fire way to distinguish between the two groups.

I really doubt it is a triploid, it seems these days anglers think all stocked rainbow are triploids. Fish and Game agencies don't go through the trouble of making triploids unless there is specific reason they need or want the fish to be sterile.

ClearCreek

 

[beaverfan]

For those of you that think the fish is a brook trout: - Brook trout (and other chars like lake trout, bull trout, etc.) have a dark background color with light colored spots. The trouts (rainbow, cutthroat, brown, etc.) have a light colored background with dark spots. This is a sure fire way to distinguish between the two groups.

I really doubt it is a triploid, it seems these days anglers think all stocked rainbow are triploids. Fish and Game agencies don't go through the trouble of making triploids unless there is specific reason they need or want the fish to be sterile.

ClearCreek

It may not have been an intentional triploid, while it is rare it does happen naturally.

 

[ClearCreek]

beaverfan:

While you are correct triploidy can occur naturally, it is very, very rare. The fish in question is just a hatchery rainbow with a different spotting pattern than is commonly seen. I have seen numerous hatchery rainbow in the last 40 years that have the similar spotting pattern.

The point I was trying to make is the fish is NOT a brook trout!!

ClearCreek

 

[Kais]

Teenage mutant ninja trout

 

[fish4life]

Looks like some of the freakish fish my kids were catching from canby pond smashed nose lots of spots,those fish were planted by odfw