Trout ID

What surprises me most about this Kluane lake trout is not how much colour there is but how orange the colour is (as opposed to red), like a brook trout or arctic char.

But the spots on its face show it's a lake trout. Brook trout and arctic char have no spots forward of the gills.

Also since the lake trout season closes in early fall for many of us we don't see lake trout in their fall spawning colours.

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Originally Posted by kickingfrog

Also since the lake trout season closes in early fall for many of us we don't see lake trout in their fall spawning colours.

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Agreed. The majority are caught accidentally by anglers targeting steelhead.

By now, many lakers are quite colourful ... maybe not like the fish in the video, but definitely orangey-yellow on the belly fins and lower belly.

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Originally Posted by Symmetre

Agreed. The majority are caught accidentally by anglers targeting steelhead.

By now, many lakers are quite colourful ... maybe not like the fish in the video, but definitely orangey-yellow on the belly fins and lower belly.

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Really? Aren't most steelheaders hitting the rivers this time of year? Lakers don't spawn or live in rivers?

I've found lakers to change drastically from lake to lake as well. and have targeted them this time of year my whole life, i never saw a great deal of change actually come fall. to my eye and experience, it's less a seasonal thing, as it is a geographic one.

I have caught lakers in the Ganny late fall as well as casting from shore in front of other tribs and from shore at Humber park.

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Originally Posted by TrapJack

Really? Aren't most steelheaders hitting the rivers this time of year? Lakers don't spawn or live in rivers?

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No, but lakers in the Great Lakes will sometimes swim a short ways up tributaries during the salmon or steelhead spawn to eat the eggs. Maybe only a few, but they're there to eat, not to spawn, so it makes sense that they'd get caught, especially on roe.

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Originally Posted by TrapJack

Really? Aren't most steelheaders hitting the rivers this time of year? Lakers don't spawn or live in rivers?

I've found lakers to change drastically from lake to lake as well. and have targeted them this time of year my whole life, i never saw a great deal of change actually come fall. to my eye and experience, it's less a seasonal thing, as it is a geographic one.

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A friend of mine [ now passed away] used to go to Labrador every year where he caught many Lake Trout in the rivers .

Where are you fishing lakers in the fall? You know, the closed season for them?

Anyways, having worked with spawning lake trout in the fall doing egg collections, I can attest that they do indeed change colours, sometimes quite drastically, from their usual colour patterns.

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Originally Posted by TrapJack

Really? Aren't most steelheaders hitting the rivers this time of year? Lakers don't spawn or live in rivers?

I've found lakers to change drastically from lake to lake as well. and have targeted them this time of year my whole life, i never saw a great deal of change actually come fall. to my eye and experience, it's less a seasonal thing, as it is a geographic one.

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Originally Posted by blasted_saber

Where are you fishing lakers in the fall? You know, the closed season for them?

Anyways, having worked with spawning lake trout in the fall doing egg collections, I can attest that they do indeed change colours, sometimes quite drastically, from their usual colour patterns.

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I'm not from Ontario. Though i live here now.

yes i know.thank you for jumping to that conclusion.

Have caught Lakers in Duffins creek this time of year. Have seen pics of phenomenal Lakers caught in the Niagara.