Jump to content
Fly Tying
Sign in to follow this  
Markbob

Species confusion

Recommended Posts

The guy who caught this fish posted this pic on another forum I follow and said that it was a brown trout. I do not live in an area with trout water so my knowledge of identifying the species is not exactly...anyhow, looking through some magazines and stuff, this fish looks like a brookie. If it is a brown, what is the difference in the coloring that I am missing. Also, multiple people replied to his thread and no one said that it wasn't a brown.

post-34851-0-86969100-1390011147_thumb.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It looks like a brown to me. Check out the fly fishing section of this forum and look at the thread " personal best brook trout" for a few great brookie pictures.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

From what i have seen and researched this is a brown. A brook will be a little more green with yellow line on top by the dorsal fin, and the pectoral and anal fin will have a whitish coloring on the front line of the fin.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay, the fin appears to have the white stripe on the leading edge though it is hard to say because of his hand. I just haven't seen the red dots with the blue circles on a brown before, brookies have those too right?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, brookie's have some red spots but browns usually have quite a few more. Brookie's have worm like markings on the top half of them and both can have the blue halos

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't really know if they do cross spawn but I have never heard of it. I kind of hope they don't because it might tone down the coloring of the brookies and turn them into a something that I don't want to imagine.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They do cross breed. That's how you get tiger trout. But tiger trout are infertile and can't breed. I believe it's pretty rare though, in 20 years of trout fishing here in Pa I have only caught 2 wild tigers.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

After reading what Decap240 posted, I have heard of tiger trout but I don't think that I have ever caught one. I wish that I hadn't read this now because there is a creek farther up in the mountains that was originally a brookie creek but it is stocked in the lower section with browns and bows and now I won't rest until I catch a tiger....if it looks like a brookie but gets huge and fights like a bulldozer brown then it might not be a bad thing...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay, I see the difference now with the worm markings. Like I said, I thought the red with blue halo was only on brookies.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There are different strains of brown Trout. "German Brown" trout have some red spots with blue halos, "Loch Leven" browns have only black spots.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Brook Trout are Char. Char tend to have light spots on a darker background while true Trout tend to have dark spots on a lighter background. This can be seen in the photos posted.

 

Tiger trout have been stocked in some lakes here in Oregon to help curb the population of Tui Chubs. I believe that wild occurances of Tiger trout are rare.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have known for many years that brook trout are not really a trout at all, but a char. That has been a joke with myself for a very long time that the official Virginia state fish is a brook trout that isn't actually a trout. I am not an expert on the subject of brook trout/char but I caught my first one about 45 years ago and I have seen my share of them over the decades since that first one. The ones that I chase and love aren't transplants but are the real little natives that has been in these mountains since the beginning.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Jaydub is correct about the differences between brown and brook trout. Brook trout, lake trout and arctic char all all related species in the genus Salvelinus. Brown trout are a different but related genus, Salmo. Just to confuse the issue, rainbows are an entirely different genus, Onchorhynchus. All are part of the family of Salmonidae.

 

Someone else might be able to confirm this but I was under the impression that Tiger trout are a hatchery creation, not something that would occur naturally, or only extremely rarely.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...