Letort colors

[salmonoid]

I'm going to go out on a limb and state that the Letort browns are no more unique in their coloration and spotting than any other wild browns. The reason I feel I am on a limb is I've never actually fished Letort; however, I have looked at dozens of pictures, most with comments where folks gush about the unique coloration and spotting of the fish. The gushing does more to identify the stream to me than the coloration and spots. Absent the comments about the uniqueness of the fish, I would not be able to ID the stream they came from. I've caught beautiful wild fish from limestoners and freestoners; some are sparsely spotted, some are densely spotted, most have red adipose fins (no trend either way between limestone/freestone), some are pale, some are bronze, some are butter, and in often, within the same stream, all of the above apply. Sometimes there are generalizations that can be made about drainages, but usually, there's variability.

 

[wildtrout2]

These are both freestone browns, one from NC and one from NE Pa. Both have a lot of red in the tails. I think it's pretty common.

 

[mario66pens]

Where can one learn about the history of brown trout strains?

 

[tomitrout]

There's a book out there titled The Compleat Brown Trout, lots of good info in it. You should be able to find it via the Google and Amazon.

 

[Fishidiot]

mario66pens wrote:
Where can one learn about the history of brown trout strains?

You would greatly enjoy Behnke's Trout and Salmon of North America. This is one of my favorite books and one that I use for reference on probably a weekly basis (and it's up to date - 2002) both for technical info as well as for the beautiful color illustrations by Joe Tomelleri.
Behnke's chapter on brown trout covers the different strains fairly well but he implies that the genetic differences were quickly lost in the US due to hatchery breeding in the late 1800s. He suggests that the only spot where genuine "German" browns are probably still extant is in Yellowstone NP in some isolated waters.

 

[pcray1231]

I'd agree most of our fish are mixed, and there aren't many "pure" strains remaining. That said, I certainly do see genetic differences between streams, and find it likely that different mixes inhabit different streams. So some may be weighted more one way than the other.

I think it's more likely the different "mixes" are based on changes in the hatchery strains over time, and what you see in the streams may be a reflection of the hatchery strain at the time the stream was "seeded", or perhaps different hatcheries. In the old days they tended to stock fingerlings from train cars, and the sources may have varied.

Also, it's possible/likely there has been natural change via natural selection, further separating genetics in different drainages. To what extent I dunno. And of course, spot patterns and such are a mix of genetics and diet, so that "is it purely diet?" question sits in the back of one's head when contemplating this stuff.

Nonetheless it's very interesting to me.

 

[BrookieChaser]

I would agree with the suggestion of Robert Behnke's books. I have both "Trout and Salmon of North America" and "About Trout".

 

[JackM]

Sorry for the bright flash:

 

[mikesl]

Based on a previous life as an aquarium hobbyist for many years, I think the genetics and diet combine roughly like this:

To exhibit red coloration, a fish needs to be genetically disposed to show red in certain areas, have a diet containing the pigment astanaxathjn, which is common in crustaceans (scuds, crayfish, maybe some insect nymphs but not sure) and be "feeling good" where feeling good can be anything from dominant in the pecking order to simply not stressed out and in fear.

I think for browns that all comes together in the fall
Diet may also explain how the same genetic stock can have different appearance in different streams

Any explanation for the biology of dark coloration in pocono browns?