Your Streams & Waters

Freshwater Stream Destinations

Native Trout:
Native Trout are indigenous or native to a given region. They have survived habitat change and introduction of non-native species by God.

Wild Trout:
Like native trout, wild, stream-bred trout are trout that are born and raised in the stream, not in a hatchery. They are different from native trout in that their ancestors were at one time stocked. After being stocked, they were able to survive and reproduce on their own well enough that stocking was discontinued. It is common to find stream-bred trout in streams and rivers where trout are still stocked.

Stocked Trout:
There is a huge difference in a stocked trout, a native trout and a wild trout. Stocked trout are born and feed in a hatchery prior to being stocked. They are much easier to catch than wild trout that were born in the stream and have spent their entire life capturing food only from what Mother Nature has provided. The stocked trout will usually fall for just about anything that remotely resembles food, especially if it is similar to what they were used to eating at the hatchery. They are much less afraid of danger  than wild trout. Wild trout have to survive the treats of predators such as otters, birds and other fish their entire life.

Types of Trout Streams:
There are roughly three basic types of trout streams. Some are combinations of two of them and are difficult to label one or the other.

Species of Trout:
There are several species and subspecies of trout in the United States and Canada. Most of them fall into one of four categories, rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat, but there are others.

Anadromous Species:
Anadromous fish are born in fresh water, spend most of their life in the sea and return to fresh water to spawn.

Pacific Coast Steelhead
Pacific Coast steelhead are rainbow trout that are born in freshwater streams, spend much of their life in the Pacific Ocean, and return to freshwater to spawn.

Great Lakes Steelhead
Great Lakes steelhead are rainbow trout that are descendants of Pacific Coast steelhead that are born in streams, spend much of their life in the Great Lakes, and return to streams to spawn.

Pacific Coast Salmon
Pacific coast salmon are born in freshwater streams, spend much of their life in the Pacific Ocean, and return to freshwater to spawn.

Atlantic Salmon
Atlantic Salmon are born in freshwater streams, spend most of their life in the Atlantic Ocean, and return to freshwater to spawn.

Great Lakes Salmon
Spend their life in the Great Lakes, and return to streams to spawn.

Sea-run Cutthroat Trout:
Sea-run cutthroat trout are cutthroat trout that are born in freshwater streams, spend much of their life at sea and return to freshwater to spawn.