Seeforellen Browns

[Sweet Caroline]

Came across this article http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/20/sports/outdoors-bigger-and-older-super-trout-arrives.html and I'm curious if anybody knows why NY stopped stocking these browns? Also, was watching some videos of massive browns getting caught out of Lake Michigan and I believe this is a strain they still stock. Not that I'm complaining about our brown trout fishery but it sure would be nice to catch 15-20+ lbs browns on a regular basis.

[Sk8man]

They experimented with them in some of the lakes thinking they would become huge like the ones in Europe but they didn't survive well  or live up to expectations so they canned the program.

[alex1young]

Every now and then someone claims they catch one out of Ontario of the fingers. 

[Xxx]

I have a good friend who owns a trout hatchery, and a few years ago he purchased some eggs to try to raise, his thoughts were to raise this trout for the " big fish" derby at different gun clubs and other organizations, only a small amount hatched and a lot died before they got to a certain length, after they got like 4-6 inches, those all survived and grew to about 6-8 inches the first year. The gun club I belong to got 6 of the trout, we raise our own as we have our own per say raising area with 9 stations and we stock the stream that flows through the property and I got 3 for our own pond, mine grew 2"s more than Bobby's and the gun clubs, all due to everyone feeding the fish just to see these giants, the second year they grew to about 24-26 inches and had massive shoulders. I lost one to the Blue Heron, speared behind the head and ate the eyes out, I was Pi$$ed, but it's been an issue ever since we stocked the trout, Goldens are magnets to Herons, forget about it they will kill every one. The third year we had trout pushing 30"s they were huge, and beautiful, and not many got caught due to their size and POWER it was absolutely the greatest thing when little Johnnie got hooked up with his or her little Barbie pole or little camo outfit, also the adults had their handsful with regular trout rod, but those that got landed were trout of a life time. Bob lost his rearend on those fish due to the no hatch, then the fingerling were not very hardy fish, also the ones that got caught that were in the mid to upper 20 inch mark did not due well after the catch, they either rolled over and died or it took a long time to recover for a release even when the waters were cold.

[Sk8man]

I can't help but think specifics of the water quality or perhaps the weather extremes were different for the Seeforellens because when I was stationed in Germany in the sixties those huge browns were being caught in small lakes near me (20 lbs plus that I saw with my own eyes were common) and the water was quite muddy and murkish compared with many of the cold water lakes here and the temperature range over there never got down to the extremes we see here in the winters. I wonder if they just couldn't adapt over time to the conditions here. I know browns can adapt to warm water better than other trout but I'm not sure about cold adaptation.

[BSmaster]

Looks like they are stocking adult size fish in CT.

http://www.onthewater.com/connecticut-stocks-state-record-brown-trout/

 

Pretty fish.  I wonder if it fights like the browns I have come to know?

 

[GAMBLER]

They stock them in Lake Michigan with no issues.  No reason NY should not be able to make it work. 

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

First they would have to determine if they run tribs. If yes, then they will get poached and rushed back to NYC. Law enforcement can't handle most of the BT being fleeced out now.

[Sk8man]

One of the potential problems is that they tend to spawn in late November and into December and the stream conditions may not be great for that at those times (water levels etc.).

[Frogger]

Just to ad Les, there was a lot of talk about the lakes, specifically Seneca not being able to sustain with the forage base. Some say not that I'm in full agreement but hurt the smelt badly. The year that 17lb was caught was an incredible time to catch these monsters maybe late 90's. Bobber fishing at that time was the best.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[jimski2]

New York stocks Browns in Erie and Ontario. 16 to 20 pounders are caught regularly, especially where the bottom and thermocline meet in the summer. In the spring on nearshore waters which warm early and November where they search for flowing stream waters. Sea run Browns come from the saltwater where survival is only for the largest and strongest like sea run steelhead, not like our Ontario rainbows.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[steve-hamilton]

16lbs to 20lbs caught regularly?

 

hmm.....

[GAMBLER]

16lbs to 20lbs caught regularly?

 

hmm.....

Yes Steve they are and then they are weighed on a scale and magically they lost tons of weight from the time they were caught and weighed on a scale.  In all seriousness, big browns 12 - 16 lbs are caught often in Lake Ontario but it would be nice to see slob browns over 20lbs. more often. 

[Bigfoot]

I was told that DEC quit stocking them in Owasco because they didn't show up in the angler diaries and they failed to find them when they did electroshocking in the tribs after Thanksgiving. However, a dedicated fly fishing friend of mine found them during Christmas break and had the trib to himself until the January 1st stream closure. He reported many fish in the 20lb range, and a few much bigger.......I suppose if he were a lifter he would have dragged a few home and word would have gotten back to DEC, but he's not like that.

I have seen him pass up shots at giant tom turkeys simply because the bird that responded to the call was not the one he was after.

[John Kelley]

New York stocks Browns in Erie and Ontario. 16 to 20 pounders are caught regularly, especially where the bottom and thermocline meet in the summer. In the spring on nearshore waters which warm early and November where they search for flowing stream waters. Sea run Browns come from the saltwater where survival is only for the largest and strongest like sea run steelhead, not like our Ontario rainbows.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Seeforellen are not necessarily "sea run browns".  The word See actually translates to lake, in German, and these are what they refer to as their lake trout. We might, however, be Americanizing the term to refer to sea run trout over here.  I saw some huge specimens mounted on the walls in some alpine Gasthouses(taverns) over there, that came out of Alpine lakes. Several over the 50 pound mark.   I even caught a couple smaller specimens in Alpine lakes and they were bright silver, and resembled Atlantic salmon more so than a big fat, football brown.