Northwest Fishing Reports

OK, this one I can identify, for sure, without doubt. For those that have seen these, it will be easy. For those that have not, it will be an interesting learning experience. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy looking for odd fish.

Check this out and "Can you identify this fish?"

Sorry for the poor photos, but the fish was still in the water when I took them. You should know that there are no spots on the fish, the fish is lighter toward the belly, but still a baby blue all the way. The fish has a large and pronounced red stripe down the side. The eyes are normal color, dark. The fish is about 8 pounds this year.

I'm going with Beardslee trout as the only time I've ever seen one it had no discernable spotting and had a distinctly bluish rather than green back. I can't say that I remember it having much of a stripe down it side, but hey that was many years ago.

A blue trout -
It is probable that the species is O. mykiss as the rare color mutant that causes the blue variant is most often found in rainbows though it has also been noted in browns.

While such a color mutant is very rare (typcially seen occasionally in a hatchery) I actual caught (and released) a wild one in Cascade mountain stream.

Tight lines
Curt

Dolly!

Smalma wrote:A blue trout -
It is probable that the species is O. mykiss as the rare color mutant that causes the blue variant is most often found in rainbows though it has also been noted in browns.

While such a color mutant is very rare (typically seen occasionally in a hatchery) I actual caught (and released) a wild one in Cascade mountain stream.

Tight lines
Curt

You are correct. The blue variant is very rare, maybe one fish in a million fry. Normally they are very vulnerable to predation due to the fact they stand out like a sore thumb. They do happen in the wild, but to have caught one, a wild one, you are so lucky you should have won the lottery by now (LOL).

Blue Lakes commercial fish hatchery in Hegerman Valley, Idaho, has kept and bread them together to get a strain of blue rainbow trout. They did the same thing with the yellow variant, which is now incorrectly refereed to as a golden trout by some. The yellow variant is more common. Back in the late 70's you could pay to fish in their outflow pound for the yellow and blue trout, but I have not been there for many years.

G-Man, the blue and yellow variants seems to appear in all trout species. This is true of Kamaloops (like the one pictured), coastal rainbow (the one in most State run rainbow production systems), West Slope Cutthroat, and perhaps a lot more. I had never heard about Browns, but I completely believe it.

We pulled the Blue Kam out of the pond today to take more pictures. With the spawning season a few weeks away, the red stripe was much reduced, and out of the water was almost gone. We also found a few black spots now, but not a lot.

I will be able to download new pictures that are taken with the fish out of the water, but not until this weekend.

This one was way to easy. Well done guys.