Jackos thread reminded me of this, I think the picture was originallposted on the wild fishing uk board.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attac...4&d=1223975301

It looks unusual and I wonder if it's a hybrid between an arctic char and brown trout.

__________________
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

I knew the guy who caught that fish.

He talked to me at length about it several times and he is 100% certain that it is a trout/charr hybrid.

Really, actually the coloration reminds me almost of a pollack. I read somewhere before that char/brown trout hybrids arent the prettiest. With the tiger (brook trout/brown) hybrid you get nice swirly patterns but that fish is very washed out looking.

__________________
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Yep. He spoke to me a couple of times about it and was insistant that it was a hybrid. There were a couple of threads about it on various forums and they took a different view but the guy who caught it has been fishing for brownies for years and I have no reason to doubt him.

The lack of black spots make me think it's not a regular brownie, even the sub species have black spots. Have char been caught in the lake also?

__________________
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Yes. The water is came from is known to hold both species.

Weird looking creature. What loch is it taken from - so I can check on their charr spawning habits? Some races are spring spawning and/or spawn on the lake edges not feeder streams. They almost never mix.
Were scale or gill raker counts carried out?

Hybrid probably unlikely - Atlantic salmon have sixty chromosomes and brown trout eighty. I think Arctic charr have eighty-four, as that is what American lake and brook trout (both really charr) have. Incidentally they are called 'splake' when hybridized, the offspring are fully fertile and can breed with each other or either parent.

Hi Ephemerella,

Its not for me to say what loch the fish came from but both species have been caught in the loch before. No scale samples were taken at the time but I do know that the guy who caught it will be trying to catch one again so that he can send a scale sample to Pitlochry for verification.

The fish was returned unharmed btw.

Cool - Pitlochry will know.

A close up photo would have done for a lateral line scale (number) count.

I think there are 4 seperate races in Rannoch for example. The benthic and, more often caught pelagic. Spring and autumn spawning combinations.

On reflection I think it's a benthic variety charr - I've only monochrome images in my books. It always struck me how pollack like they were.

I think hybridization is possible just highly unlikely.
http://www.boku.ac.at/hfa/charrnet/Hybridisation.pdf

__________________
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.