Wild Brook vs Stocked Brook

[Brook Fan]

I was wondering the wild Brook trout in GSMNP are green with an orangish belly and red, yellow, and blue spots, while the stockers in the Clinch are Brown or Black with Yellow dots and maybe a hint of blue.

Will the stockers in the Clinch ever turn green or will they stay dark?
Also are these 2 fish the same strand of Brook Trout?

[MBB]

The colors of trout typically vary watershed to watershed. It is my understanding, that the brook trout stocked in the Clinch are Northern strain brook trout and the brook trout in the Park are Southern strain or mixed strain.

[Brook Fan]

Thanks for the info
I always wondered why the difference.

[Speckleman5]

Very True, Depending on which watershed you are in in the park the colors are very very different.

[Stonefly]

The brookies I've caught in NC look nothing like the wild fish in the park. I'm looking at a photo on my wall, honestly looks more like a char* than a brookie. Brown body with yellow spots. Decent sized delayed harvest fish.

* which of course it is.

sb

[MBB]

The brook trout stocked by North Carolina are all Northern Strain. Of North Carolina's wild brook trout, approximately a third or so are all southern strain, about 10-15 percent or so are all Northern Strain, and the rest are mixed strain with varying degrees of Southern strain and Northern Strain (i.e. the brook trout in one stream may have 80% Southern Strain genetics and 20% Northern Strain genetics or vice versa or any combination thereof). Interestingly, most of the Southern Strain streams in NC are Gulf of Mexico drainages. There are only a few streams in NC that flow into the Atlantic that are pure Southern Strain.

It is my understanding that Tennessee has a much higher percentage of streams that are pure Southern Strain, though NC probably has much more brook trout water.