Is it a trout or a salmon?
Trouts and Salmons
Identifying trouts and salmons can be challenging. Colors vary, depending on sex, age, and habitat (inland lake or Great Lake). Also, dead fish often show less color than living fish. You shouldn't rely on color alone to identify a trout or salmon, but this page will show you some other ways to tell.
On this and the following pages, choose the one of the two options that best describes the fish. Or select directly from the complete list of fish in each category at the bottom of each page.
- Rays
in anal
fin usually 9 to 11 (ranging from 7 to 12) and outer edge of anal
fin nearly vertical when stretched
- Select
OR
- Rays in anal fin ranging from 13 to 19 and outer edge of anal fin
at an angle when fin is stretched
- Select
All trout and salmon IDs on this site: rainbow trout, atlantic salmon, brown trout, lake trout, brook trout, sockeye salmon, pink salmon, chinook salmon, coho salmon
Sources: "Fishes of Isle Royale," by K.F. Lagler and C. R.
Goldman, Isle Royale Natural History Association, 1982.
Fishes of Wisconsin, by George C. Becker, University of Wisconsin Press,
1983.
Freshwater Fishes of Canada, by W.B. Scott and E.J. Crossman, Fisheries
Research Board of Canada, 1973.
copyright 2001 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
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