Trout season is now well underway in our state, and a good number of anglers are pursuing a variety of trout species in lakes and streams. When it comes to trout fishing in Pennsylvania, the most commonly caught trout will be rainbows, browns, and brookies, and for good reason — they are the ones most commonly stocked by the Fish and Boat Commission. You may have noticed some changes in recent years, though, since more rainbows are being raised and stocked now than ever before, apparently because they are less costly and easier to raise.
Rainbows are not native to Pennsylvania but are actually a western trout species. As the name implies, they have a red or pinkish band down the sides and a pinkish gill cover. Most of the body is covered with black spots, including the tail and dorsal fin. The rainbow can be taken with all the same lures, flies, and baits as all the other trout, but one thing that stands out when you catch rainbow is they are more apt to jump up out of the water when hooked, and this fighting action of a rainbow can at times make them more of a challenge to bring to the net.
The brown trout is another commonly caught trout here in Pennsylvania Like the rainbow, the brown is not native to Pennsylvania. Not only is the brown not a Pennsylvania native, it’s not even native to the United States; the brown trout was actually imported to the U.S. from Germany in the late 1800s. For the most part, it is a stocked trout, but there may be some minimal natural reproduction in some locations in our state. The brown will have a yellowish undercoating with black spots surrounded by a halo and some orange or reddish spots down towards the belly area.
Our third most common trout is the brook trout. This is the only trout that is actually native to our state, but unfortunately, due to the loss of habitat, the native brook trout are becoming less common. The native brook trout is more colorful than those raised for stocking, and it is usually smaller. The background color is brownish to greenish, laced with wormlike markings or pale yellowish spots and sometimes red spots. On a native brook trout, the red/orange fins and belly trimmed in black are more prominent than in the stocked trout.
Native brook trout are found in our smaller mountain streams that remain cold enough to maintain these trout.
Another species of trout, although not as plentiful, it is certainly a lot more visible. That is the so-called “golden trout.” The golden trout, also referred to as a Palomino, is actually the result of a rainbow trout cross-breeding with a West Virginia Golden trout. That West Virginia Golden trout actually originated from a color variation in a single rainbow trout that was spawned in the fall of 1954. The bright golden-yellow is easy to spot in a stream, and you can bet there will usually be several anglers gathered around trying to latch on to what is also one of the larger trout in the stream.
There is one more trout that many anglers are less familiar with, and for good reason — not many are in our streams. I’m referring to the tiger trout. This trout is the result of a cross between a brook trout and a brown trout. When you look at a tiger trout, the normal vermiculations seem to be enlarged and appear more as stripes and swirls or spots. The overall coloration is more greenish along the back and often with a more pinkish yellow or even more red or purple on the sides. They are stocked in much lower numbers are and are hard to come by; I’ve only caught a couple in all my years of trout fishing.
When it comes right down to it, I guess it really doesn’t matter which trout we’re catching as long as we are catching trout.
