Golden trout from the White River
WE were running upstream at Wildcat yesterday when one of my colleages exclaimed “Holy Moly, What sort of trout is that”. Standing out like the proverbial black dog’s whatzits against the dark bottom was this light yellowish trout. Well actually he didn’t say “Holy Moly” but you will appreciate my journalistic licence. It looked like one of the so-called “golden trout” or perhaps an albino. As I was to find out today, the AGFC have released about 1000 of these uniquely colored rainbows.
When I got back homeyesterday here were these pictures sent in by our mate Don Allenbaugh, who is making a habit of being in the right place at the right time with a camera lately.
Steve,
Thought you might like this. Norm Johnson and Dick Hasselwinder caught this trout this morning while fishing above Jenkins Creek. I am not sure who stocked them (Norfork or Spring) but they were put in the other day.
So I emailed AGFC Trout Biologist Jeff Williams to get the lowdown.
In order to make up for a shortage of trout resulting from this and last year’s high water, some rainbow trout were purchased form a private hatchery in Missouri. Mixed in with the normally colored rainbow trout were some of the golden color variation. These fish have been stocked on the White River so far between Bull Shoals Dam and Buffalo City.
A small number have also been stocked in the Little Missouri River below Narrows Dam. All told there were probably less than 1,000 of these golden rainbow trout. I have already received some calls regarding these fish so I wanted to get more information out to you.
These golden rainbow trout are rainbow trout and are not a different species…just a color variation. Their flesh is similar in appearance to that of a normally colored rainbow trout and is safe to eat. They are not albinos nor should they be confused with the golden trout (Oncorhynchus aguabonita) native to a few drainages in California. Some folks refer to them as palomino trout, although this is not completely accurate.
As far as regulations are concerned, since they are truly rainbow trout they will fall within the regulations for that species.
Jeff
