Possible reproduction in the LIR?

[troutbum54]

I hooked into this little guy while at the lower Illinois today and I'm pretty sure it's not a stocked bow. The fins had no wear and tear from being in a concrete holding tank and it seemed pretty different compared to all of the stockers I caught today.

[breeden3]

Definitely a cool looking fish but in my opinion a stocker. If you look at the front of his nose, you can see where it was rubbed pretty badly while he was in the stocking tank.

[troutbum54]

I just noticed the lack of overall damage to the fins and body other than where I had hooked him originally

[troutbum54]

Anyways I'll turn this into a report. The water was almost crystal clear and cold which is nice since it's been so dingy the past few months. It started off slow, but after walking down to one of my favorite spots it really started heating up. These photos are of some of my better ones in the 14-19 inch range. I ended with about 100 trout to net and lost many more. Almost all of my trout came on a size 16 boot bodied nymph which i had to retie after I got back home. The thing was basically just a hook and some thread. Trout were rising everywhere but the wind started taking a toll after a bit. Overall one of my better trips.

[jcw355]

Stockers, water levels change too much on the LIR.