Drocken/estuary/or slob trout

first of all i'm not sure if this is the right section for this post....
to start this off, everyone can see a lot of reports recently of trout been got, but on a recent report someone posted a reply stating "slob trout do not exist" in each part of the country differant people have their own local name for these trout, in my area we call them Drocken trout AND THEY DO EXIST if their called Drocken/estuary or slob it makes no mater. the first time i heard Drocken trout mentioned was in my kitchen when i was a nipper, my grandfather and his friends were getting ready for a fishing trip to our local river, the foyle. and they were talking about the good run of seatrout in the river, and they said the seatrout coming in will spur up the the Drocken and they will be running the river with the seatrout, so everyone was looking forward to a good session. in plain terms, a Drocken is a brown trout that leaves the river and takes up residence in the estuary, they stay in the estuary and move in and out of the river on the tides, they do change their appearance over time, and can resemble the looks of a seatrout. in the estuary they put weight on a lot quicker and are known for their fighting abilities, they will attack your bait very quick and hard and will strip your hook in a second. just look up the Bush river web site, it is renowned for its Drocken trout with ones been got up to 10lb in weight.
but this post doesn't mater, cus' certain people say "slob trout don't exist"

i only became familiar with these five years ago when fishin in the north and then i understood what happened in my local river that flows out in courtown when they drained the harbour about twenty or so years ago there was loads and loads of big trout in the harbour they were trout the fishin club were stockin the river with and were runnin down to the harbour i have never caught one but they are there .some older men in the club are adamant that some of these come back as sea trout they say they are shorter and fatter which i have seen .hope you get replies to this subject its very interesting my friends that i fish with from belfast love comin down here and catchin these drocken in places that guys like me have been fishing all our lives and dont no they are there

My local river/estuary in galway has a nice stock of slob trout every year id get them around 5lbs only problem .The only problem is you only seem to get the big ones now 3lbs plus as the coromonts have all the small fish wiped out.Someone from the college done a survey on hare island [small island off galway] and found 70 nesting pairs of birds there with between 4 and 6 eggs per nest.Good luck to fishing when they mature .At the moment thers feck all fish in our sea rivers and lakes Whats it going to be like in a few years if we dont come together now and look for a cull on these destroyers of fisheries

Here we go again. Cull the cormorants? Cull the seals? Good luck with that!

Yea imagine the brilliant fishing we'd have if it wasn't for those pesky cormorants.... [yawn]

Stick to the topic, lads. Slob trout, not seals or cormorants.

If anyone wants to comment on seals, cormorants or any other predators, please start a seperate thread.

It was always my understanding, and I stand corrected so forgive my ignorance, that brown trout, slob trout and sea trout were entirely the same species just that some choose to migrate away from their original habitats....?

It was always my understanding, and I stand corrected so forgive my ignorance, that brown trout, slob trout and sea trout were entirely the same species just that some choose to migrate away from their original habitats....?

Same here...

It was always my understanding, and I stand corrected so forgive my ignorance, that brown trout, slob trout and sea trout were entirely the same species just that some choose to migrate away from their original habitats....?

yup your bang on, they are all genetically 100% the same species which asks the uestion? why do i need a licence to fish for sea trout when i can fish for brown trout for free? they are after all identicle apart from their chosen habitat. its like being told i can shoot a deer in famer o'shea's farm for 100 euro but in micko'hoolahans farm across the road its free?

The eggs of Sea Trout are laid high in rivers and streams in areas known as redds. From here their development begins and eventually the small fish hatch. At this stage, known as Alevin they are sustained by a yolk sack, which provides nourishment to give them a good start.
As they grow the Yolk sack is used and disappears, the young fish becoming Parr, dependant on their resources to feed.

Sea trout, brown trout and even Salmon Alevin inevitably share the same rivers and nurseries. A juvenile sea trout parr is very similar in appearance to the juvenile brown trout; markings are similar and both may share the same stretch of nursery. As a sea trout grows its genetics change and anatomically it
develops organs that a brown trout lacks. As parr become smolt, herling or peel, it develops salt secreting glands in its gills and changes colour from its brown trout characteristics, eventually resembling a salmon more than a trout.

The reason for this is a much debated subject, however I feel it can be looked at from two differing aspects:
The sea trout is something of an enigma. Seldom seen in the estuaries and sea that are its home for part of the year, the sea trout runs back to rivers and streams every spring and summer to spawn. Firstly I should explain a little science behind this brave and resourceful fish. Genetically there is no anatomical difference between the sea trout and the brown trout. Both share the same Latin name 'Salmo Trutta.' It is here where the similarities cease. However the Rev. W. Houghton in his 1879 Publication 'British Freshwater Fishes,' refers to the Welsh Sewin as 'Salmo Cambricus' It appears that the Reverend's classification was forgetten for some years and now the fish is simply classified as 'Salmon Trutta.'

i have always noticed that brown trout seem to move down stream towards the mouth around april. and stay there till june
on a river i have fished since i was a boy .i always assumed they moved down from the gravel beds to make room for the seatrout coming up to spawn .you can see them at night on the beach in the river as your crossing and at no other time of the season .the big seatrout are first to arrive in may .are they maybe aggressive and move the brownies down stream
away from the spawning grounds?we call these the sweepers as when they arrive large amounts of moss and weed start comming down stream like there cleaning the bottom of the river bed.

Very interesting topic lads, seems like all the studies of salmon over the years has allowed the patterns of trout migration to go under the radar. Like trout hunter said we are familiar with "slob trout" around courtown but would like to know if they do actually migrate to sea or remain in the estuary / harbour. In addition to this opinions / info on catching them would be another good discussion....

I'm pretty sure that Ed Fahy mentions in his book "Child of the Tides" that all trout migrate from their feeding grounds to spawn, sea trout of course feeding in the sea. The distance travelled may be quite small though. I'll have a look at home for the reference.

Sea, Slob and Brown Trout are the same species, I think there is more genetic variation between trout from different rivers than there is between Sea Trout and Brown Trout from the same river. Again, I'll have to check that up later.

found quite a bit about slob trout on line they seem to be everywhere there is a tidal esturey http://www.fishingnet.com/brown_trout.htm lot of sites mostly in the uk

The eggs of Sea Trout are laid high in rivers and streams in areas known as redds. From here their development begins and eventually the small fish hatch. At this stage, known as Alevin they are sustained by a yolk sack, which provides nourishment to give them a good start.
As they grow the Yolk sack is used and disappears, the young fish becoming Parr, dependant on their resources to feed.

Sea trout, brown trout and even Salmon Alevin inevitably share the same rivers and nurseries. A juvenile sea trout parr is very similar in appearance to the juvenile brown trout; markings are similar and both may share the same stretch of nursery. As a sea trout grows its genetics change and anatomically it
develops organs that a brown trout lacks. As parr become smolt, herling or peel, it develops salt secreting glands in its gills and changes colour from its brown trout characteristics, eventually resembling a salmon more than a trout.

The reason for this is a much debated subject, however I feel it can be looked at from two differing aspects:
The sea trout is something of an enigma. Seldom seen in the estuaries and sea that are its home for part of the year, the sea trout runs back to rivers and streams every spring and summer to spawn. Firstly I should explain a little science behind this brave and resourceful fish. Genetically there is no anatomical difference between the sea trout and the brown trout. Both share the same Latin name 'Salmo Trutta.' It is here where the similarities cease. However the Rev. W. Houghton in his 1879 Publication 'British Freshwater Fishes,' refers to the Welsh Sewin as 'Salmo Cambricus' It appears that the Reverend's classification was forgetten for some years and now the fish is simply classified as 'Salmon Trutta.'

grew up in Glanmire county cork, fished the goolies out of the glashaboy and tributaries for 15years. never caught a slob trout, even when chancing the more esturine stretches of the river. Did however catch thousands of seatrout up to about 3/4lb's. of the seatrout I killed and gutted (up to 500), of all sizes I never once caught a male whitetrout. Don't doubt that there are male white trout-just never killed one.
when I was a kid I didn't care much for seasons (8, 9, 10 years old like) didn't care much for 12th of October and caught loads of male browns at halloweeen. I didn't kill these fish but knew they were male as they would spill.
Anyway, point being the white trout are deffinatly spawning with the browns. In that particular river there seems to be a gender balance going on with many females heading to the harbour to get fat and the males staying local. exact same species me thinks

very interestin