Plan B Unicorn - 1/12/19

[NJSquatch]

Chrisper and I drove 45 minutes north to a deep water lake in Sussex County Saturday morning only to find it totally locked up! Made a phone call and drove over an hour to find open water and target deep water predators. The fish were not cooperating and after 3.5 hours decided to shift gears and target brownies.

After 1.5 hours we were literally about to pull the plug and i get a thunk on the drop shot rig. After a good fight we net a healthy brownie that was just short of a skillful angler award At 18.75"

https://i.postimg.cc/90Dh67tZ/IMG-0182.jpg

Kept working the weed line and I get another thunk. This fish was lighter but was fighting like mad. Get it into the boat and the fish couldn't contain itself once it saw Chris's purdy's face. After it was done we looked at the fish are like what the hell is this thing??? We both concluded it was some kinda mutant brown trout with full pectoral fins and a deformed dorsal.

https://i.postimg.cc/wvytV7y4/IMG-0188.jpg

Scene Of The Crime

https://i.postimg.cc/W3k3ZCCQ/IMG-0190.jpg

After conferring with JDTrout and the internet the fish turned out to be a male landlocked salmon sporting his spawning colors. My first Landlocked!

This was one of the 300 recently stocked fish. Given the vastness of the reservoir this is literally a needle in a haystack/unicorn type catch. Doing the math the stocking resulted in ~1 fish for every 2 acres of water! Will definitely be a memorable catch for some time.

Never give up!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Way to make it happen guys!!! I’m amazed you found an LL in there. Awesome catch Squatch!!! YEA BUDDY!!!:D

[icebadger]

nice smallmouth.. don't know what to make of that "scene of the crime" photo:confused: are you sure that's a LL it looks like a brown trout that dorsal fin is normally found on stockies but it is usually the pectoral fins that are ground down. nice day to be out there. no ice no problem for you guys.:cool:

[thmyorke1]

Excellent SMB, and congrats on the first LL. Awesome you found one despite the rarity

[oelgnal1]

Nice job with the SM, cold water fishing is tough and hate to say it but that looks very much like a brown trout.

[thmyorke1]

Now if it's a brown where is it from? Creek tributary?

[bulletbob]

Were you guys jigging?.. Nice job at rescuing what could have been a skunker of a day. Thats a brown trout..

Best way to tell is the tail.. The Ll has a more forked tail than a brown.. Also a more pronounced dorsal, and the skin coloration is much more silvery, with none of the gold color of a brown trout.
last but not least the salmon "speckles" are always black, not of varying colors like a brown might have, and they aren't round spots like a brown, they are more jagged shaped with a lot of definition against the skin color.. bob

[dakota560]

Interesting picture. You should send it to F&G and see what they think. From researching it on line, few points. LL salmon mouths come to middle or rear of eye, brown trout extend beyond rear edge. LL's markings usually end at or above the lateral line and have no makings on the adipose fin or upper tail which your fish doesn't appear to have. LL tail is more forked as others have mentioned, brown more squared. If I had to guess I'd guess it is a colored up salmon but as Bob pointed out what's unusual is no black markings. Males can have red markings, I've attached a picture of the land lock I caught late last year which had a lot of red in it but notice the markings are all above the lateral line. Yours has all red, no black which is odd. To me the biggest issue is the mouth not extending past the eye and a slight forked tail but as others have pointed out coloration is a bit unusual although I've seen brownish spawning male LL's but they've all had some degree of black marks.

Below is a link that explains differences between various trout including browns and Atlantic Salmon.

https://seagrant.sunysb.edu/glsportfish/pdfs/SalmonTrout-LakeOntario2012.pdf

Again I'd send the picture to F&G and let them weigh in. Possible you discovered a new species, maybe they'll name it a Land Locked Squatch. Either way, nice catch!

[NJSquatch]

Here are some more shots. Click on the thumbnail to bring up the high res image.


https://i.postimg.cc/3kp00vSd/IMG-0185.jpg (https://postimg.cc/3kp00vSd) https://i.postimg.cc/87WwksLb/IMG-0186.jpg (https://postimg.cc/87WwksLb) https://i.postimg.cc/dZyZRZsH/IMG-0187.jpg (https://postimg.cc/dZyZRZsH)

[Chrisper4694]

i honestly don't know...i thought it was a salmon seeing it in person til i saw the red dots then i thought it was a brown, but then Justin told me salmon get the red dots this time of year too so i went back to thinking it was a salmon...don't look like a brown trout face either, eyes and mouth.

all i know is it jizzed all over my damn arm and reels...

[reason162]

all i know is it jizzed all over my damn arm and reels...

Now all you need is a source of brown and salmon eggs...and you'll figure it out...science!

[dakota560]

Found this on line.

Landlocked salmon have brown, green or blue backs with many small black spots. The sides are silvery and the dorsal fin also has large black spots. During the spawning season, the colouring becomes more bronze and the males develop red spots on the body.

If I had to guess I would still say with the position of the mouth relative to the eye and dots above the lateral line, this is a young male LL in spawning colors. If you look close, there are some faint black markings and the tail looks slightly forked as opposed to square.

I'd still send it to F&G for their opinion.

[bulletbob]

Found this on line.

Landlocked salmon have brown, green or blue backs with many small black spots. The sides are silvery and the dorsal fin also has large black spots. During the spawning season, the colouring becomes more bronze and the males develop red spots on the body.

If I had to guess I would still say with the position of the mouth relative to the eye and dots above the lateral line, this is a young male LL in spawning colors. If you look close, there are some faint black markings and the tail looks slightly forked as opposed to square.

I'd still send it to F&G for their opinion.

Could be.. I have caught hundreds of LL, and never saw one with that much bronze coloration.. they are always silvery all year, at least here in cayuga lake.. The backs are typically greenish to almost black.. The tails always have a more forked appearance..

to be fair, local populations probably have differences I am unaware of, as the ones I catch all come from the same place, and are all hatched at the same facility.. they do not reproduce successfully here in NY state.... bob

[dakota560]

Bob....there was another article I came across yesterday which did say habitat factors into coloration. Not sure if that meant water coloration, forage fish, bottom structure etc or all of the above but it did mention color can be effected by habitat. I'm planning on attending the F&G meeting this Saturday, will try showing the picture to some people with better knowledge than me and see what their thoughts are.

[Dave B.]

i honestly don't know...i thought it was a salmon seeing it in person til i saw the red dots then i thought it was a brown, but then Justin told me salmon get the red dots this time of year too so i went back to thinking it was a salmon...don't look like a brown trout face either, eyes and mouth.

all i know is it jizzed all over my damn arm and reels...

I would agree with you, based on the head and forward body shape my call would be definite LL. Coloration can be affected by a number of variables, body/head shape doesn't change except in the case of stunted fish which this clearly is not.

[bulletbob]

This is an enjoyable thread, and a great one for mid winter when we are sitting around thinking about fishing instead of fishing!


I still say brown, but I have seen too many weird salmon/ trout up here to be 100%.. Even DEC guys have had differing opinions on photos over the years.. they count fin rays and check the vomers in the mouth when these types of things come up.


I hope its ok for all involved that I got my friends from Lake Ontario United involved.. these guys are really adept fishermen and well versed in all types of salmonids and their various color quirks.. These guys troll the Finger Lakes year round and have seen every variation out there as it pertains to brown trout/Landlocked salmon.. The majority say its a brown, but I do think a few guys think it might be a salmon as well .. Its all in good fun anyway, and I think you all might enjoy the input of knowledgeable guys we don't normally converse with here...bob

https://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishing-hunting/topic/76600-brown-or-ll-salmon/

[dakota560]

Bob thanks for taking the time asking around and sharing responses. Great read. Seems like the best way to determine as one person pointed out and is part of the link I posted earlier is the inside roof of the mouth. LL has a single row what they call vomerine on the roof of their mouth, brown trout has two in a more zig zag pattern. Too late for that comparison unfortunately. Again I hope to attend the F&G meeting this Saturday, will see if any biologists are available and I'll post their opinions.

[bulletbob]

Bob thanks for taking the time asking around and sharing responses. Great read. Seems like the best way to determine as one person pointed out and is part of the link I posted earlier is the inside roof of the mouth. LL has a single row what they call vomerine on the roof of their mouth, brown trout has two in a more zig zag pattern. Too late for that comparison unfortunately. Again I hope to attend the F&G meeting this Saturday, will see if any biologists are available and I'll post their opinions.

Tom.. If you look at the comparison photo of the 3 browns/3 salmon, that the guy on LOU posted, you will see the TYPICAL look of browns/salmon.. Deeper tail fork, less spotting on the LL that does not go as far down toward the stomach/ventral area, mostly all black specs instead of the colored round spots on the brown, and in general the LL are more "silvery" than the browns.. Thats why I put the word "typical" in caps.

However, there is always the genetic oddball here or there, and on LOU we see this type of thread regularly.. The answer is ALWAYS the same.. Check inside the mouth, its the most conclusive way to identify... Of course, no one ever does! bob

[Dave B.]

Take a look at this LL pic that was taken of one of those same fish while they were at the Hackettestown Hatchery. Looks damn near identical to me.
https://www.njfishandwildlife.com/images/fisheries/salmon_hatchery_ruberto.jpg
I'm sticking with LL Salmon.

[JDTuna]

Congratulations dude! That is, without a doubt, 100 percent a landlocked salmon. No question about it. You're probably the first to catch one there as well. That's a huge achievement if you ask me.

[15FOOTER]

Nice job! That was prob a tough fish to catch. Theyll kill em all by late spring now dont worry. Look at how much more pressure another lake got that had an 8lb LL reported. They will just go the way of the brown trout in other reservoirs. Thought they would be bigger in Wawayanda by now lmao

[Chrisper4694]

njf&w confirmed with the source of the stocked ll salmon that it is 100% a ll salmon. pretty cool.

[NJSquatch]

F&W biologist (Pat H) also asked to report any additional LL catches (length, weight, pics,etc) from the reservoir. They are concerned about stressing the forage population and didn't want to stock too many.

https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/bfwf_biologists.htm