The second brown def wild, but what makes you think the pic next to the rainbow is a stockie.....Other that the fact that it looks a little thin, the coloration and fin development look good to me.....If it is a stockie , which is possible than they would have had to gotten the eggs from a native or long time holdover.....
Believe it or not , this is not too uncommon....
The late 90's saw many horrible drought conditions for the catskill mountain streams....I personally witnessed an electro shocking at carins pool on the beaverkill where they removed aprox. 50 native browns in the 15-25" class....You can only imagine how upset us regulars were....
We were dealing with very bad droughts which were naturally killing native fish by the hundreds and now the state was removing fish that beat the odds...Their explanation was to be able to replenish the rivers with stocked fish that didn't look stocked AT ALL....These stockies would also technically have the instincts of their native parents....I just wish that these fish would have been returned once river conditions allowed....Multiple years of semi to very severe drought conditions changed tose rivers for generations to come....Used to be able to go up there and ONLY concentrate on the beaverkill and willowemoc, now the upper D and its branches are the best game in town for true trophies...Of course back then A River Runs Through It (the movie) did not exist and there were a few million less fly fisherman to pressure the waters.....Been fly fishing the catskills for trout for about 25 yrs. now, and i definately miss the old days.....Sorry to hijack the thread.....
But maybe you found some genetically sound stockies that were hijacked from another watershed to create superior cookie cutters
