The kings will stray from their planted areas at will. It only takes the smell of the river with a few fish in it. Planted fish of any species don't really imprint as well as fish that are naturalized, in other words, born in the wild. A few kings will make it up just about every river in the great lakes during the fall that has enough water in it. Some of those fish will spawn successfully and produce smolts the following spring. Thats all it takes, then those offspring will usually come back to that river. And, for the record, don't get caught up in believing that you can tell one strain of brown from another just by where its caught or how it looks. The seeforellens are typically like a steelhead in the sense that they are lake run fish. They grow bigger usually and color up and males grow a kype (hooked jaw) just like any other brown when they enter the rivers in the fall. The other strains are just typically stream run browns grown in a hatchery and are only lake fish if they are planted there. Some of the Gilchrist and Wild Rose strain will run the rivers in the fall too to spawn but not as for certain as the Seeforellens. All of them strike yarn or especially an egg sucking leech with reckless abandon in the rivers, no matter what time of year.
Steve Horton
These are the voyages of the S.S. Enterprise......to search out new weedbeds....to explore new reefs...to boldly go where no muskie fishermen have gone before.
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Originally Posted by jerkbait
