Brook Trout	Brown Trout	Rainbow Trout

 Western Wisconsin, April 10, 2010 (4/17/10 alternate date)

r      Start at 6:30 (6:37 sunrise) on your honor.

r      Finish 2:30 at Highway 29 + 63 (north east corner) just north of Martell (Click picture below for approximate travel times from various locations to the finish spot)

r      Lunch on your own, any time

r      Food committee provisions at end of tournament

r      Partners must fish together and not on separate streams.

r      Qualifying fish: - GET SCORECARD HERE:  PDF Version     XL Spreadsheet Version

o        Brook Trout – 10 largest

o        Brown Trout + Rainbow – 10 largest

o        20 fish total

r      Minimum size

o        8” Brook

o        9” Brown + Rainbow

r      Per Wisconsin Regulations

o        No live bait

o        Barbed hooks are now allowed!

o        Catch + release

r      Waters

o        Any open Trout Streams permissible to fish per Wisc DNR located in

§         Pierce - GET MAP

§         St. Croix - GET MAP

§         Dunn - GET MAP

§         Barron - GET MAP

§         Pepin - GET MAP

o        Excluding!

§         Kinnickinnic River, any fork. All tributaries permissible

§         Rush River. All tributaries permissible.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL TOURNEY PACKET (in PDF)

TEAM PAIRINGS as of 3/11 at 8:18 p.m.

 A Trout Primer:

The three species that we will be fishing for, while all called “trout”, are as distantly related to each other as a Smallmouth Bass is to a Largemouth Bass is to a Rock Bass. Yet because of general proportions and shape, behaviors, habitat, proximity on the family tree, and tradition, they have all received the surname “trout”.

Brook Trout – Not a trout at all but a “Char”. Brookies are one of two of Minnesota and Wisconsin’s native trout, but both of which are actually Char (or the Latin Salvelinus family), the other being the Lake Trout. Both of these fish are also related to Arctic Char, the Bull Trout - which is found in the American and Canadian West as well as the Dolly Varden. Of all “trout”, members of the Char family are most demanding when it comes to cold, clean waters. The more aggressive and warm water tolerant non-native species such as Brown Trout have pushed Brook Trout in to smaller waters in much of their original habitat. The fundamental means for distinguishing a Char from another species of trout; the markings on the body are lighter than the background color of the body. All other species of have darker spots or markings on lighter bodies.

Brook Trout are native only to North America and the area at the headwaters of the Mississippi and western terminus of the Great Lakes are the farthest west of their original habitat. They have been planted around the word. Other species of Char are found naturally in Europe and Asia.

Brown Trout – The “true” trout in that it is the original European ancestor and very close cousin to Atlantic Salmon (which are very different from Pacific Salmon). Most Browns brought to North America come from either German or Scottish stock (notably Loch Leven). Brown Trout and Atlantic Salmon are members of the Salmo family. With the exception of  spawning runs of Atlantic Salmon on the North East Coast of North America, there are no members of the Salmo family indigenous to the continent. There are several small exceptions where once migratory Atlantic Salmon became landlocked and thus naturalized.

 In Minnesota and Wisconsin, Brown Trout have been planted with such success, often to the detriment of local Brook Trout populations, that they have become naturalized in many locations and need no stocking to maintain healthy populations. Browns, while more tolerant of warmer or slower water, are considered the least gullible of all trout.

 Rainbow Trout – Rainbows are part of the large Oncorynchus family. This would include their cousins the “Pacific Salmon” such as King and Silver Salmon and sisters such as Cutthroat Trout. No members of the species of Oncorynchus were originally found west of the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Rainbows being so closely related to Pacific Salmon have a strong migratory instinct. Ocean and lake migrating Rainbows are known as Steelhead. While Rainbows are popular for stocking, in our area they are considered put-and-take fish as those not caught in the first year of stocking tend to migrate down stream and not return as they are lost to predators or die in the warm, slow water of the Mississippi. There are always some holdover fish and these are the 15”+ fish that are occasionally found. Lake Superior stream Rainbow are an exception as they often fatten up in the lake and return next season to spawn as large Steelhead.

 Pacific Salmon species differ from Atlantic Salmon in that all Pacific Salmon die after spawning once. Atlantic Salmon typically spawn twice and rarely three times before dying.