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Q: Why is the lake trout on this photograph, caught on a Muskoka lake by OOD Photograph Friday winner Ayden Veitch of Bracebridge, so darkly colored?
A: Adam Weir, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters Fisheries Biologist responds: Color could be fairly variable with fish and is influenced by issues like stress or a fish’s habitat and its environmental environment.
For instance, to the untrained eye, a bluntnose minnow caught in turbid circumstances could be mistaken for a spottail shiner as a result of the colouration could be fully washed out, making the spot on the caudal peduncle extra pronounced. Have you ever ever captured a rock bass that’s nearly fully black? The chromatophores within the pores and skin are the pigment-containing cells that may drastically alter the looks of a fish, akin to a stressed rock bass that has simply been reeled in.
The looks of many salmonids can tackle a radical distinction in the course of the spawning interval. From the chromed-out look of an open coast coho, to the hooked jaw (kype) and iridescent purple-green hue of a river-running male within the fall, there is usually a stark distinction. Percids, like walleye and yellow perch, typically have grey-blue color variants. Muskellunge in a murky river I frequent are unusually darkish, whereas those caught within the St. Lawrence or Georgian Bay, for instance, have a tendency to be a lot lighter in color. For these causes, it’s good apply to not establish fish by color, however reasonably depend on different physiological identification options.
Initially revealed within the Nov.-Dec. 2022 situation of Ontario OUT of DOORS
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