Trout is the common name for a number of species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera Oncorhynchus, Salmo and Salvelinus, and all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae.But you may be more familiar with such names as Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Golden Trout. Another familiar member of this fish family is the palomino trout, a mix of the golden and common rainbow trout.Though commonly considered a trout, the brook trout is actually one of the chars, which in North America also include the lake trout, bull trout, Dolly Varden, and the Arctic char. Nonetheless, like allk “trouts,” the brook trout is good eating. But, of course, it is the Rainbow trout that appears to be most popular in Western cuisine including both the wild-caught and farmed fish.
Trout are an important food source for humans and wildlife including brown bears, and birds of prey such as eagles, and other animals. As a group, trout are somewhat bony with small flexible bones, but the flesh is tasty.
Young trout are referred to as troutlet, troutling or fry and sometimes are called sac fry or alevin. And because of their popularity, trout are often raised on fish farms and planted into heavily fished waters, to offset the effects of over fishing.
Golden rainbow trout are predominantly yellowish, lacking the typical green field and black spots but retaining the diffuse red stripe.
Rainbow trout are predators with a varied diet and will eat nearly anything they can capture.ON the other side of the rod, rainbows are a popular game fish for fly fishers. Silver spinner blades are also known to excite rainbows, lake trout, cutthroats and brookies while brown, golden and bull trout often favor gold blades.
Cutthroat trout are native to western North America and have evolved through geographic isolation into 14 subspecies, each native to a different major drainage basin.
Brown trout have been widely introduced into suitable environments around the world, including North and South America, Australia, Asia, and South and East Africa. They have established self-sustaining, wild populations in many of the introduced countries. Brown trout have had serious negative impacts on upland native fish species in some of the countries where they have been introduced, this is particularly true in Australia.
Brook trout have a diverse diet that includes larval, pupal, and adult forms of aquatic insects (typically caddisflies, stoneflies, mayflies and aquatic dipterans), and adult forms of terrestrial insects (typically ants, beetles, grasshoppers and crickets) that fall into the water, crustaceans, frogs and other amphibians, molluscs, smaller fish, invertebrates, and even small aquatic mammals such as voles.
Trout have fins entirely without spines, and all of them have a small adipose fin along the back, near the tail. And trout have a well-developed sense of smell.
