The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.
This one pretty clearly keys to Kogotus, but it also looks fairly different from specimens I caught in the same creek about a month later in the year. With only one species of the genus known in Washington, I'm not sure about the answer to this ID.
Thom on Dec 21, 2006December 21st, 2006, 6:17 am EST
about two years ago i was fishing in the lower hudson valley of new york, a small streem that flows into the hudson river. it was the 2nd week of feburary when i landed a strange looking trout/salmon. she was silver whith a bright pink stripe, no spots and full of eggs,about 14"-15". on the next cast i landed a male brook trout about the same size. what kind of fish was it? do some fish change how they look in the winter months?
any ideas please let me know.
thanks, thom
Fly_Tyier on Jan 7, 2007January 7th, 2007, 2:06 pm EST
I'm not totally for sure on what type of fish it is but I do know that there was a fish some people in Mexico got that had the genetics of a rainbow trout and of a steelhead trout. my best guess is that it could be a cross breed. But then again I am only guessing.
GONZO on Jan 7, 2007January 7th, 2007, 3:11 pm EST
Thom, I'm stumped. I've caught some lake-dwelling rainbows that had very small indistinct spots, but I've never seen a rainbow without spots (except for those yellow cartoon rainbows that states like PA use as stocking "indicators"). Then again, if the fish swam up from the Hudson, who knows? Maybe it passed under the outfall pipe of a carbon tetrachloride plant and had its spots removed! :) (Sorry, but I couldn't resist. Both of the fish you describe certainly qualify as pretty unusual specimens, especially for a lower Hudson trib in February.)