Trout, Salmon & Whitefish

How to tell them apart

One identification cue for each species, from its profile. Open a profile for the full description, size and range.

Rainbow Trout

The rainbow is unmistakable when in good color: a silvery to greenish body with a broad band of pink, red, or rose running along the lateral line from gill to tail, giving the fish its name.

Brown Trout

Unlike rainbow trout, the brown trout has very few or no spots on its squarish tail.

Brook Trout

The brook trout is one of the most beautiful freshwater fish in North America. Its dark olive-green back is overlaid with a distinctive pale, worm-like marbled pattern called vermiculation, which extends onto the dorsal fin and the squarish tail.

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

Lahontan cutthroat are coppery to olive with profuse dark spots and the orange-red slash under the jaw that names all cutthroats.

Taimen

Its sheer length and thick, muscular build separate it from any trout or char you have caught.

Lake Trout

The lake trout is, despite its name, a char - closely related to the brook trout. It has a long, somewhat torpedo-shaped body colored gray to greenish or brownish, covered with a dense scattering of pale, irregular spots over the back, sides, head, and fins.

Chinook Salmon

This black mouth distinguishes the Chinook from the similar coho salmon, which has a lighter gum line.

Coho Salmon

The identification features that separate it from a Chinook are precise and important.

Steelhead

A fresh steelhead straight from salt or a lake is unmistakable: bright silver, almost mirror-chrome on the flanks, with a clean white belly and a dark blue-green back.

Cutthroat Trout

Most have a moderately spotted body, a rounded snout, small teeth on the back of the tongue (the basibranchial teeth used to distinguish them from rainbows), and no white leading edges on the lower fins.

Kokanee Salmon

In its primary lake phase, the kokanee is a sleek, streamlined, bright-silver fish with a deep blue or greenish back, fine speckling, and no large black spots on the body or tail - a key feature separating it from trout and other salmon.

Arctic Grayling

The Arctic grayling is unmistakable. Its body is slender and trout-like, silvery-gray with a wash of iridescent purple, blue, and bronze that shifts in the light, scattered along the flanks with small dark spots concentrated toward the front of the body.

Bull Trout

Because it is a char, the bull trout shows light spots on a dark background, never the dark spots or wormlike vermiculations a true trout or a brook trout displays.

Sockeye Salmon

The single best field mark is what is missing: sockeye have very fine or essentially absent spotting on the back and tail, far fewer spots than other Pacific salmon, which is the quickest way to tell them apart.

Golden Trout

The golden trout is one of the most vividly colored freshwater fish in North America. Its flanks are a brilliant gold to brassy yellow that deepens to red-orange low on the body and along the belly, and a bold crimson or rosy stripe runs the length of the lateral line.

Tiger Trout

Unlike a rainbow or brown trout, a tiger trout has no clear spots over most of its body; instead the whole side is covered in those bold squiggling stripes.

Lake Whitefish

Its small mouth, silvery color, and adipose fin distinguish it from suckers and from the closely related but more slender ciscoes, which have an upturned rather than downturned mouth.

Dolly Varden

The Dolly Varden has the classic char body plan: a long, streamlined shape, a slightly forked tail, and small scales that give the skin a smooth look.

Splake

The splake looks like an intermediate blend of its two char parents, which can make it tricky to identify.

Pink Salmon

The small size, tiny scales, and boldly spotted tail together make the pink salmon easy to tell apart from its larger cousins.

Chum Salmon

The chum salmon is a large, deep-bodied Pacific salmon, bright silver in the ocean with a slender tail base and, unlike the pink, only faint speckling rather than heavy spots.

Atlantic Salmon

The Atlantic salmon is a streamlined, powerful fish with a slightly forked tail and a small adipose fin.

Cisco

The lower jaw typically projects slightly beyond the upper, distinguishing it from close whitefish relatives.

Mountain Whitefish

The mountain whitefish has a slender, cylindrical, silvery body that is rounder in cross-section than a trout's.

Apache Trout

They closely resemble the Gila trout but occupy a separate range.

Gila Trout

Gila trout are copper-gold with fine, profuse dark spots concentrated toward the back and tail, and a faint yellow cutthroat-like coloring.

Arctic Char

Char are silvery in the sea and deep orange to brilliant red when spawning, with pale pink or cream spots on a darker body and white-edged lower fins.

Inconnu (Sheefish)

Sheefish are big and silvery with a large mouth, a projecting lower jaw, and the deeply forked tail of a whitefish.

Round Whitefish

Round whitefish are cylindrical and bronze to olive above with silver sides, a small mouth, dark-edged scales on the back that form a fine net-like pattern, and the forked tail of a whitefish.

Rainbow Smelt

Smelt are slim and silvery with a translucent greenish back, a large mouth with tiny teeth, an adipose fin, and a faint iridescent side stripe.