Brook trout thrive in water temperatures between 55 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The most crucial factor in a brook trout habitat is water temperature. Habitatīrook trout live in small spring-fed pons and streams with gravel or sand bottom and vegetation. In more productive lakes and ponds, brook trout live longer and achieve lengths over 20 inches and exceed ten pounds. Headwater streams usually have the smallest trout, rarely producing brook trout over six to seven inches. The growth rate, longevity, and feeding habits depend on elevation, available forage, and water temperature. Unlike other salmon fish types, the brook trout has no teeth on the roof of its mouth.īrook trout are generally slow-growing fish the average brook trout reaches about nine to ten inches in length. The colors of the Brook trout are much more vivid during the spawning season in the fall. The underside of the brook trout is a milky white color. It has orange or red lower fins with a white and a black streak. The brook trout has scattered red spots bordered by pale blue along the sides. Along the trout’s sides, the color changes from olive to orange or red. This trout species has spots along the top of its back that are worm-like in shape. The brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis is a bright-colored fish with yellow spots all over an olive green back. The southern strain is often referred to as speckled trout and is less diverse, making these brook trout populations more fragile to change and catastrophic events. The boundary for these strains is the New River drainage in southwest Virginia. The original range for brook trout included much of northeastern North America, which included streams of the Appalachian mountains as far south as Georgia and going west to the Hudson Bay and basins of the Great Lakes.Īccording to the fisheries biologist, there are two genetically distinct brook trouts strains, which includes the northern and southern strain. The coasters live in the upper Great Lakes and are potadromous, meaning they live in lakes but spawn in a river. The salters in the Northeast are anadromous, meaning they live in saltwater then run upriver to spawn in freshwater. They are a migratory fish species, and there are two different migratory populations of brook trout known as salters or coasters. Brook trout often coexist with brown and rainbow trout.īrook trout may spend their whole lives in freshwater or live in salt water and spawn in fresh. Brook trout are the only native trout species east of the Rockies. Other charr family members include bull trout, lake trout, blue-backed trout, arctic charr, and Dolly Varden.īrook trout live in cool, clean, well-oxygenated mountain streams, lakes, and beaver ponds from as far south as the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina to as far west as Minnesota in the United States. Brook trout are part of the char genus and not trout. Brook trout, also known as speckled trout, are quickly identified by their beautiful yellow spots over an olive-green back.
They belong to the salmon family, Salmonidae.
The Brook trout is a beautifully colored freshwater fish found throughout Canada and the northeastern United States.
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