big rainbows and little browns?

[Billfish715]

It is quite possible but unlikely that the browns were part of a fall load of fish. Look at the pectoral fins. They don't look like they have raceway burns like stocked fish. The color is more like a native or holdover fish. The strain of brown trout that is stocked is different from the native fish. That change came about many years ago when the fisheries biologists found a more suitable strain with a quicker and stronger growth rate. There might have been some fish that made it into a load of fall stockers but with the weight of the "biguns" in the truck, I don't think they would have risked puting more weight into the load. Years ago they did a third week of stocking. It was when they culled the surplus 4"-5" rainbows (mostly) and dumped them into the major streams. This eliminated overcrowding in the raceways and stimulated the growth of the spring stockers. The hatchery has also released other surplus fish when the occasion merited that action. Those stockings were not announced and fish were dumped into most of the conveniently located big streams. There is concern among biologists regarding the influx of stocked fish which might deteriorate the gene pool of the native trout in those streams. While it is possible for that to happen in smaller streams, the likelihood of wholescale interbreeding in the major streams is less probable.