# Is this a Wild Brown? ClearFork Mohican



## pbrouse (Jun 18, 2013)

Meant to post this a couple weeks ago but I was fishing a stretch of the Clearfork on the upper and caught this little guy can't be a stocked fish. I was wondering if with the much more clear and colder water on the upper if there is a lot of natural reproduction? If you notice it's hard to see but the brown has the white tip fins and the color of a wild brownie


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

while it is possible for a little bit of reproduction to happen in Ohio streams, its unlikely. The state stocked the 7-9" fish the first week of October this year ( earlier then normal) and we see a lot of very nicely colored fish on the mad River that we always wondered the same thing but in reality Ive seen the same beautiful fish when the stocking is occurring( Ive been there when they were stocking many times) so again, while possible, I doubt it. Still great to catch one of these nicely colored fish! 

Salmonid


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

I concur with Salmonid, it is most unlikely that the fish you caught was naturally reproduced on that river. I read an article not to long ago regarding trout naturally reproducing in Ohio's rivers and it said the Clear Fork head water streams may support limited reproduction however nothing has been documented in any public data source to support that claim.

Still a very nice fish, congrats.


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## Bassbully 52 (Feb 25, 2014)

I have wondered about them reproducing as well. I have not been down there in awhile but years ago way between the stockings I caught 3" brownies...just sayin.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

About two weeks ago I fished Clear Creek and caught what I am 99.9% sure were stocked browns and several of them had very vivid coloration. The WV stockers are a lot easier to ID because they typically have very worn fins from the concrete hatchery and are usually pretty pale in coloration. The Ohio hatchery(ies) for brown trout must be better for the fish because I don't see the worn fins like I almost always do in WV.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Bass, officially the state stocks browns 1 time in the fall but... depending on how good a hatch they have from the brood eggs in early Winter, they may have 100,000 fry hatch when they really need only say 40,000, so as they grow them out through winter into spring, they will sometimes do what is called a "surplus stocking" although we routinely refer to it as the surplus feeding... but they will offload a whole bunch of 3-4" fingerlings to get down to the right number for the fall stockings,( plus they need the room as these fish continue to grow) they will put these in all three of the stocked streams so its possible that those tiny fish were natural but maybe not. In fact the best colored browns we always figured were the ones stocked as fingerlings in the spring and looked great in the Fall since they were well adjusted already to the stream environment. 

Now since they will sometimes do this in the spring, (only on years of banner hatches btw) we often will start throwing baby brown trout streamers an burn up the bigger fish since thousands of new food fishes just showed up and the bigger fish will go crazy for them, talk about matching the hatch...LOL

Salmonid


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## Bassbully 52 (Feb 25, 2014)

Salmonid said:


> Bass, officially the state stocks browns 1 time in the fall but... depending on how good a hatch they have from the brood eggs in early Winter, they may have 100,000 fry hatch when they really need only say 40,000, so as they grow them out through winter into spring, they will sometimes do what is called a "surplus stocking" although we routinely refer to it as the surplus feeding... but they will offload a whole bunch of 3-4" fingerlings to get down to the right number for the fall stockings,( plus they need the room as these fish continue to grow) they will put these in all three of the stocked streams so its possible that those tiny fish were natural but maybe not. In fact the best colored browns we always figured were the ones stocked as fingerlings in the spring and looked great in the Fall since they were well adjusted already to the stream environment.
> 
> Now since they will sometimes do this in the spring, (only on years of banner hatches btw) we often will start throwing baby brown trout streamers an burn up the bigger fish since thousands of new food fishes just showed up and the bigger fish will go crazy for them, talk about matching the hatch...LOL
> 
> Salmonid


Cool info thanks


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