Mystery Fish Contest #3 Result
Answer: Brook Trout
The mystery fish species in our third mystery fish species contest is brook trout, but we also accept Salvelinus fontinalis, brook char, speckled trout, speckled brook trout as correct answers.
Key features of a brook trout are the light spots across its olive/green/grey/dark body, with some pink/red spots along its lateral line and blue halos on its sides. Along its dorsal region (back), you will also notice snake-like markings, which are the same colour as the light spots.
Out of 405 entries, 81% (329 entries) were correct. The most common incorrect answer was bull trout or dolly varden (47 entries). Brook trout, bull trout and dolly varden are all in the char family, but there are distinct features that separate them. The most obvious feature is the snake-like markings along a brook trout's back, which are absent on a bull trout and dolly varden.
This is a species native to the Eastern parts of North America, but they have been stocked in many lakes across British Columbia. Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, which is funded by your angling licences and manages five trout hatcheries across this province, is responsible of this stocking program. Stocked brook trout found in BC lakes are generally between 1 and 3lb, but much bigger fish are caught from time to time. These stocked fish are triploid, meaning that they do not have the ability to spawn in our lakes and establish natural populations.
The winner of this contest is Peter Merth, who will receive the DVD "How to Catch Steelhead, Salmon and Trout, Volume II" from the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC. Featuring Brian Chan and Mark Pendlington, this DVD fishing guide has over 2.5 hours of detailed instruction and underwater footage filmed on some of the best rivers and lakes in British Columbia. Footages of this video can also be seen on FFSBC's YouTube channel.