Golden Trout? (caught while backpacking in a small lake at 11,000′ in John Muir Wilderness, California). It foul-hooked and tore a gill, so I ate it for dinner.

Posted by sbh2oman

7 Comments

  1. No expert here but looks more like a Lahontan cutthroat to me.

    Cutthroats are out there in those areas.

    Goldens typically have a red stripe and a reddish/orange belly as well. Their gill plates can get vibrantly colored red as well. Even on larger fish goldens can have traces of par marks as well. They typically also have a region that is typically vibrant with red. Can be gill plate, belly, stripe etc. Lahontans can have all the same but there are lahontans that can lack vibrant colors as well.

    Based on lack of colors, no colored belly, lack of vibrancy in colors and it being pretty much a single color top to bottom it makes me lean cutthroat.

  2. Spag-N-Ballz on

    I didn’t think golden trout got that big, maybe a hybrid rainbow/golden? Missing the signature parr marks on the side (which don’t go away as the fish ages like they do with juvenile rainbow) and red belly

  3. playmeortrademe on

    That’s a cutty. When I’ve caught goldens in the past, there is zero doubt that they’re golden trout. Their colors are way more vibrant and I haven’t seen one with the slit in their jaw

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