Where do lake trout look like this???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8f4...ature=youtu.be
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Where do lake trout look like this???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8f4...ature=youtu.be
Arctic Char. Baffin Island
thank you, that's what i was seeing, but i've never fished them. but they say it's lakers. is the name interchangeable in some places? like partridge/grouse in ontario or pickerel/walleye?Quote:
Originally Posted by sawbill
I say Kluane wilderness lodge on Wellesley lake in the Yukon and those are indeed lake trout.
http://www.kluanelodge.com/default.htm
well i know we have red finned lake trout where i live, just not THAT red. certainly the markations on the rest of the body look like laker spots.
Couldn't find a better picture, but here is a good example of lake trout variation in my area, although none of the real red ones like i mentioned we do get... this was south of algonquin park.
they all came out the same hole in the same morning.
http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/...psm6tmafpv.jpg
Lake trout, gray trout, freshwater char.........salvelinus namaycush which is what we are familiar with.
Arctic Char.................salvelinus alpinus which as the name suggests in found only in the far north and exhibits the bright red colors during spawning season as shown in the video.
I've eaten both and the taste is absolutely identical.
Keep in mind, coloration is the last feature we should look at to determine species. I've seen lakers from silver, green, brown and black. Specks range in color from silvers, reds, oranges and yellows.
North America Chars:
Lake Trout - dense, defined cream coloured spots and vermiculations on the head, gill plate and cheek, often with small spots following the rays on the inside of pectoral fin
Brook Trout - vermiculation on the top of the head, but no markings on gill plate or cheek, no spots on the pectoral fin
Dolly Varden - faint pink spots occasionally on the gill plate only, but mostly missing in large specimens or fish in spawning condition, no spots on the pectoral fin
Bull Trout - fine vermiculations on gill plate and cheek with sparse, small pink spots on rare specimens, no spots on the pectoral fin
Arctic Char - no spots or markings on the head, no spots on the pectoral fin
It is clearly a Lake Trout in the video.
Lake Trout can get vibrant red fins, especially fish near the arctic regions. A friend of mine lives in NWT and he has shown me pictures of Lake Trout with fins and belly just as red. The fish are not in spawning condition either. They can be found with that colour intensity all year.
Logo on the side of the boat at the 24 second mark says Kluane something or other, so its someplace in the Yukon. Hunter John nailed it.
Fish in the video is not an arctic char. Definitely a laker. Its common for them to get some belly color as they get close to spawning season. The ones you get at the Ganny are often yellow - gold on the belly, same idea just not as bright.
Kluane wilderness lodge in the Yukon.
http://www.kluanelodge.com/default.htm
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.
Agreed. The majority are caught accidentally by anglers targeting steelhead.Quote:
Originally Posted by kickingfrog
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.
Really? Aren't most steelheaders hitting the rivers this time of year? Lakers don't spawn or live in rivers?Quote:
Originally Posted by Symmetre
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapJack
A friend of mine [ now passed away] used to go to Labrador every year where he caught many Lake Trout in the rivers .Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapJack
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapJack
I'm not from Ontario. Though i live here now.Quote:
Originally Posted by blasted_saber
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.
Even in Ontario there are lakes here and there with year-round seasons for (stocked) lakers.
I'm not actually sure whether the Niagara would be an example of a river that lakers enter during the spawn to forage on the migratories' eggs, or just a river that's deep and cold enough to support lakers in its own right. Some major rivers are more like lakes from a fish's perspective.
There are river spawning populations of lake trout, there are a few rivers along Superior that have runs apparently. Considering lake trout spawn on windswept shoals/shorelines with appropriate cobble it wouldn't be that big of a jump for them to use rivers to spawn.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tweedwolfscream
^^^^^ This
I would agree with this ^^Quote:
Originally Posted by tweedwolfscream
I have caught Lakers year round in the Lower Niagara (whirlpool). Though i was targeting Steelhead. They do have some beautiful colours later in the fall.
W.