Good Friday, TIDAL BREEDER BROWN!!!

[Billfish715]

From the looks of the tail, I don't know when it was stocked. The fins seem to indicate no scrapes or damage from raceway burns. it's not as silvery as a searun trout so its origin is quite a mystery. If you caught it downstream from where the state stocked the diseased brown trout in Union County last year, I'd say that they should stock more of them. Unfortunately, they don't grow that fast. If it was caught in the Raritan, I'd believe it because so many streams and lakes empty into it. The Swimming River stocking experiment has been a bust but one could have made it. Right now, we'll leave it as a mystery. Where ever you caught it. it's quite a feat. If it were tagged, the state would have some data to maybe start a new fishery or at least another place to put some trout. If you don't tell anyone, you might want to share the information with the biologists at Pequest. I'm sure they would love to hear about it.