Check this hog from Lake Shasta is it a big brown or a salmon?

http://www.myoutdoorbuddy.com/fishing_report.php?fishing=8809

I want one

Aaannnnd it's dead! 


That's a huge fish.  Would've been infinitely cooler if he were still swimming around out there, but oh well.  It's a brown trout, no question.

21lbs and only 28 inches long? Must've been a girthy gal.

now Gadd dayum son!  bruiser

good thing he had that 1/2 inch rope

I have a hard time feeling happy for someone who caught and kept such a beautiful fish without knowing what it was. Maybe I'm just a little envious, but that ain't a salmon bro! 

good thing he had that 1/2 inch rope

 No shit! that rope is only rated at probably 500lbs. Sucka!

"that rope is only rated at probably 500lbs."
That's pretty funny!

While I enjoy seeing big fish like that being caught seeing one that is obviously NOT a planter on a stringer is a little sad.
Especially in that lake. The water is so low there and still going down, making those fish easier to catch.
And yeah that rope can pull a damn VW bus behind a truck.

Aaannnnd it's dead! 


That's a huge fish.  Would've been infinitely cooler if he were still swimming around out there, but oh well.  It's a brown trout, no question.

+1, great fish though....

While I enjoy seeing big fish like that being caught seeing one that is obviously NOT a planter on a stringer is a little sad.

Maybe so, but guarantee that fish or its parents were planted in that lake at one point or another.

While I enjoy seeing big fish like that being caught seeing one that is obviously NOT a planter on a stringer is a little sad.

Maybe so, but guarantee that fish or its parents were planted in that lake at one point or another.

Maybe not, there are still a few sturgeon in that lake from before they dammed the Sac. river back when. There are some huge browns between Shasta dam and Keswick dam that are Native ( as can be ) not recent stockers.

While I enjoy seeing big fish like that being caught seeing one that is obviously NOT a planter on a stringer is a little sad.

Maybe so, but guarantee that fish or its parents were planted in that lake at one point or another.

Maybe not, there are still a few sturgeon in that lake from before they dammed the Sac. river back when. There are some huge browns between Shasta dam and Keswick dam that are Native ( as can be ) not recent stockers.

Well, maybe, but Brownies aren't native to CA so somewhere in the ancestral line they were planted.

While I enjoy seeing big fish like that being caught seeing one that is obviously NOT a planter on a stringer is a little sad.

Maybe so, but guarantee that fish or its parents were planted in that lake at one point or another.

Maybe not, there are still a few sturgeon in that lake from before they dammed the Sac. river back when. There are some huge browns between Shasta dam and Keswick dam that are Native ( as can be ) not recent stockers.

Well, maybe, but Brownies aren't native to CA so somewhere in the ancestral line they were planted.

OK point , over 50 years ago, which makes them non stockers to me to survive this long on there own.

The terms "wild" and "native" get swapped around a lot, but they don't mean the same thing. "Native" fish are the ones that have been around for thousands of years, the ones that evolved here without human intervention.  Rainbow trout, Sacramento pikeminnow, and Sacramento perch are good examples of fish that are "native" to California.

"Wild" describes a species that is self-sustaining in the wild.  However, this can also include fish that were introduced by humans into an environment that originally never saw the species.  Brown trout were introduced into the US from Europe back in the 1800s, so no matter how one slices it, there's no such thing as a "native brown trout" in North America.  Most fish in CA are "wild" but aren't "native" here, such as all the black basses, brown+brook trout, carp, catfish, etc.

In fisheries and wildlife management, it is very important to distinguish between these terms.  In the USFS, we spend a helluva lot more time, effort, and money on restoring/enhancing habitat for "native" species.  We also manage habitat for "desirable non-natives" such as wild brown trout, but they're essentially towards the bottom of the barrel in terms of priorities (and funding).