You guys seem to have pretty inquiring minds. I was fishing the King's River in late March above the reseervoir. There were not any fish where I thought they should be, but we found one hole that was very productive. I pulled this fighter out and am a bit puzzled what strain of trout(?)- see below. It is completely silver with only black spots. I suspect it is some type of hybrid or albino variant of a brown or rainbow, but I am hoping someone on this post has more insight. I notice that several of your photos have pale looking fish, but suspect that is artifact from glare.
Yep, its a brown alright. Just like the rainbow these fish are anadromous given the opportunity and the mindset. They will often start to change color prior to making the move towards a salt environment. However, in my experience its only juveniles that readily do this. As xnjb mentioned there is also the situation were the scale pigment will change to match the habitat the trout is in. I would think that trout came out of an area with a very sandy and granite rock bottom, maybe!
As a reference I caught both fish below in a small pool that is inaccessible to small sea run fish (need to be large to jump the barrier). Both are brown trout but one is gearing up to head to sea.
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Fly fishing is so enjoyable, it should be done in bed.
My understanding is that there are two species of brown trout. There is a Loch Levan Strain (Scottish) and a separate English (I think) strain. The more golden with red spots are the English Varities and typically do not grow as large. Don't get me wrong, these brown's can get big too. Check out BC's brown from last year on the Truckee... The Loch Levan variety is more regarded as the Sea Run variety and can grow very very large, like 40lbs large. The world and state record browns are of this variety. They have no red spots and more silver in color. Growing up in the Eastern Sierra I have seen both varieties. I know that you can consistently find the Loch Levan (no red spots) strain in the Walker River out of Bridgeport Reservoir (many state records have come from this reservoir). I have seen them on the East Carson as well, but usually I see the more vibrant English variety on this side of the Sierra's
I've caught browns that have all sorts of color variations, there are a lot of factors involved. Some are very gold with pink spots, Some are almost white with only black spots. Some have big spots, some have very small spots, etc.....
Look at the brown in my post, small stream pays off...very golden base color with small black and red spots.
This is from Wikipedia... "Freshwater brown trout range in colour from largely silver with relatively few spots and a white belly, to the more well known brassy brown cast fading to creamy white on the fish's belly, with medium-sized spots surrounded by lighter haloes. The more silver forms can be mistaken for rainbow trout. Regional variants include the so-called "Loch Leven" trout, distinguished by larger fins, a slimmer body, and heavy black spotting, but lacking red spots. The continental European strain features a lighter golden cast with some red spotting and fewer dark spots. It is important to remember that both strains can show considerable individual variation from this general description. Early stocking efforts in the United States used fish taken from Scotland and Germany. The Loch Leven strain is more often found in the western United States, while the "German brown" is found more toward the Midwest and East."
THanks for all the posts above. I knew there would be depth of knowledge on this topic. I suppose the snout may be a telling feature of a brown in the photo I submitted.
Just to stimulate Jon's discussion, the 2 photos below are fish I caught in Ireland last summer. The smaller fish was caught in a creek that has a regular migration of salmon; I suspect is a native. Notable, it has relatively silver color rather than yellow or green, which supports you statement of Loch Leven variation.
The second (larger) fish was caught in a lake and I have contended it is a planter because of its very drab colors, but maybe it is also this lighter color variation.
