The wild loch brownies I fish for readily come up for a dry fly, even when there's nothing obvious hatching and no rises to be seen. Would a stocked loch brownie behave in the same way?

Cheers

Neil

Not always.
A stocked brown is a very different fish from a wild one. I have always felt they fall into a camp of their own. While they can have characteristics like a wild fish they can also act like a stocked rainbow.
They tend to shoal and are more restless than a wild fish. They will take more garish flies also, at least to begin with.
Once they have been in a while they do revert to more natural behaviour but will never act completely like a truly wild fish.
My club loch is a stocked brown water with a small percentage of rainbows. For years I used to be frustrated by the stock trout behaviour. I fished for them as I would have for wildies and results were frustrating. Once I thought of them as in some middle ground my catch rate improved.

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Usually no.

In the harsher, often acid, environment of lochs trout have to be opportunistic ... they'll often come up feet to take a dapped or 'dibbled' fly.

By contrast, fish stoked in richer environments have greater choice of food at different levels and usually will only 'rise' if it's viable in terms of economy of effort ie there's enough surface food to make it worthwhile.

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I would say yes. Stocked Browns are programmed to look up for their food. That is the direction that their pellets will have come from. Let's say they are stocked into a water where the wild residents are focused on a sub-surface diet and are therefore not readily rising. I think you will see the stockies rise because it will take them time to wisen up and realise that they have food sources that do not come from the surface.

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Thanks Gents,

Maybe I should be more specific! Was thinking of trying Threipmuir next season and Harperrig. Threipmuir is stocked with browns but I'm not sure about Harperrig. My preferred option is to fish the dry fly (got addicted last season) but I wasn't sure if that would transfer well to stocked waters...

Harperrigg is stocked although there is a good head of wild browns to. Dries do work at both venues but I had more joy with wets and nymphs. Wouldn't be without a diawl bach at threipmuir and a claret snatcher or bibio at harperrigg. The snatcher was deadly a couple of times ginked up and tripped across the waves. How much is harperrigg this season? Tightlines

Maharg and others,

You have just answered a question on another thread about stocked browns. Stock fish whether browns or rainbows behave differently from wild fish and as they cannot do this as "learned" behaviour straight from the fish farm, then it must be because their genetic make-up has been altered by XXX generations of farm breeding. As Sherlock said "when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer."

Stock fish, obviously, display altered behaviour, and if they breed, even occasionally, this will surely pass on into the next generation. You guys just invented the piscatorial version of the wheel. Happy New Year!!

Well, thanks to Maharg and others for re-inventing the piscatorial wheel - I missed the info in the other thread. Happy fishings,

Neil

Hey, Neil, Two things to remember about brownies. If they are living in lochs that are relatively infertile, like hill lochans up around your part of the world, or in some of the tarns of the north of England, or the little Welsh llyns, it is said that about 80%, or more, of their food is taken off the surface. That is why such terrestrial flies as Hawthorn, Heather Fly, Black Gnat ( the Bibios )Coch y Bonddu ( Bracken Clock )etc are so acceptable. The trout in these places are conditoned to looking up for their meals. Where food on the bottom is more plentiful, they will browse more than they will rise, and they can be very territorial. The boss trout find good patches, and they defend them, sort of thing. That is why it pays to keep on the move when fishing for wild brownies. Often there is a very quick response to the first cast or two, then a fish or two is caught. Time to move on. Even if you haven't been splashing, they get the meassage. Hope that helps. In stocked waters, brown trout are usually more difficult to catch than rainbows, it's pretty generally accepted; but all trout can be cagey or unresponsive at times; but all are generally easier to catch in a wind. Jada

Harperrig is great for fierce little wild brownies. I'm not certain it's actually stocked at all, or if so, very lightly.

Dries work fairly well if you can find a more sheltered bit, or if you twitch sedges across the surface toward evening.

Traditional wets work very well, especially bushier ones (like a clan cheif) that make a bit of disturbance.

But I do best on a simple black hare's ear, size 12 or 14. Fish as an emerger when they're up in the water, or let it sink and drift round when thy're deeper.

It's a really fun water, but don't expect anything more than 8 oz or so.