Stocked trout vs. native trout…

Does anyone know what is the best (common) way to identify a stocked trout vs. a native trout? I have heard bit & pieces such as fin shape/ size, saturation of colors, fighting ability, and so on but never really understood if there was a way to tell the difference. Of course the really troll looking ones with clipped fins is easy to tell it comes from a hatchery but otherwise I don’t know. When I catch a fish that is well proportioned, I like to think it’s a native fish, but it likely isn’t. I sometimes say I like to catch native fish, but I really don’t know what I am talking about and I am certain that thanks to DNR across the country, fly fishing is much more fun (otherwise I would be catching only 10% or less of the fish I currently catch). Those that really crap on the hatchery fish probably are the lucky ones who lives in area where there is an abundance of native fish. For the rest of us, we’re just thankful there is fish to catch at all.

How do you tell the difference?


  1. I heard that damaged pectoral fin due to rubbing it against concrete pool is a good indication that they are stocked fish. Other than that, I find it hard to distinguish them as some hatchery produces fish that are brilliant in color...

  2. well those that are down on hatchery fish sometimes have an unfair bias as really any brown that are caught are hatchery fish if you go back far enough. I'm told its really easy to tell the difference between a hatchery and a wild steelhead from the very first pull.
    The thing we have to keep in mind that we have been husbands to trout in particular for hundreds of years. We have probably changed their behavior by interbreeding the hatchery fish with the wild stock. Many hatchery fish after a few years in the stream can also "go wild" and would be very difficult to tell the difference.
    The closest one can get IMHO is to catch a native fish from a natal stream. But even if you catch a brookie in the driftless(its far eastern range) one would have to keep in mind that the brook was extinct in those streams a 50 years ago and were reintroduced.
    It's certainly far easier to tell the difference between a S.N.I.T. as we called them(same nine inch trout), rainbows that are planted usually only for bait dunkers to come and harvest them and a wild stream born brown of the same size.
    I saw a video in Slovakia where they rear trout in a closed off trib with a gradient that makes them fight the current and they eat natural objects. When these trout are released it is impossible to tell the difference.