Rainbow Trout

[b-fore-tony]

is there such thing as an ocean trout that looks like a rainbow trout?

if so where are they from?

as i seen one in the fish shop.

[Burnsy]

Ocean Trout are farm bred rainbows that are put into pens in the saltwater and grown until they are ready for harvesting. They do a lot of it on the west coast of Tasmania.

[choad]

in their natural habitat, trout will migrate to saltwter as adults, returning to fresh to breed. you can catch sea run trout at the mouths of fresh water rivers along the new zealand west coast (south is.), or even the derwent river near hobart.

[PPSGT]

Ocean Trout is the brand name for sea cage raised Rainbow trout, just like caged Kingfish are

called Southern Kingfish or Hiramasa Kingfish.

Rainbow Trout do run to the sea in their Native California rivers and also in some other parts of the world when they do to they are called "steelheads", as they lose most

of their colouring and turn silver, and look much like an Atlantic Salmon in colouration.

Here is a picture showing Rainbow Trout colourations

Like all cage raised fish, Ocean Trout have small heads and tails and big fat bodies

notice on this picture of a cage raised Atlantic Salmon that the head doesnt look in

in proportion to the rest of the fish, and a similar length wild fish would have a bigger tail

Also side by side seacage raised rainbow/ocean trout

and Atlantic salmon look very similar in appearance

Jason

Edited February 7, 2007 by PPSGT

[Guest DV8]

jason

Thnaks for your very informative post. keep them coming. You do know a lot about your trout. How come we never catch Brook trout down the snowy despite them being released annually. and, have you ever heard of or seen a Golden trout?

Davo

[PPSGT]

The Golden Trout ( Oncorhynchus aguabonita ) is another Californian native and was originally only found in the Kern river before being transported to other lakes & rivers in America.

They only grow to about 20cm in their native habitat , the world record is only 5 kgs caught in a land locked lake - so they grow anywhere near as big as rainbows or browns which can get over 16kg in lakes.

I think Brook trout (Speckled Char - Salvelinus fontinalis ) might be harder to catch as being a Char, their original habitats of all the species are close to the arctic circle with their southern distribution blocked by high summer water temps - so they'd need cold water all year round to survive well. Which would be

hard to come by in any Australian river. Stocked into lakes and dams with deeper colder water they do a lot better.

Jason

[Guest DV8]

Jason

thanks once again for a great post. Where do you get all that info from. The reason I asked about the Golden Trout was that I served it in a resteraunt once. I presume they have been farmed here somewher.

davo