Can anyone tell me whats the difference betwen these three types of brown trout and what is the difference?

Dollaghan are trout that feed in Lough Neagh and then go up the lough neagh feeder rivers from now on to spawn.

__________________
And when none bite, I praise the wise
Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise.

The Sonaghan are found in the deeper areas of Lough Melvin and are a unique breed, very simmilar to the brown trout but with less spots and Darker almost black in Colour.

Gillaroos (Gil a Rua (Irish) Translates to the Red Fellow. They are golden with the fiercest red spots and also unique in the fact that they have a Gizzard, They are normally found in the shallow stoney areas and mostly eat Snails and other water bearing creatures.

Many people find it hard to differientate between the "Brown" and the "Gillaroo" so much so that people have been disqualified from competitions for weighing in suspeceted Gillarroo trout when infact they were "Browns"

I hope this helps, this is my personal information taken from lough melvin

These are very wonderful versions of Brown Trout that actually maybe actively in the process of ' mutating' into different species !

They really should be treasured and under no circumstances killed for the pot !

Lucky Ireland to have such unique fish

Best wishes

Steve P

Just to add to the above:
The Lough Melvin varieties of brown trout (sonaghan, gillaroo and Ferox) in part maintain their distinct characteristics by using different breeding sites as well as adopting slightly different feeding behaviour. In other words, breeding isolation allows them to be more finely adapted to exploiting distinct lifestyle niches. The sonaghan and gillaroo have been described above whilst the ferox grows to very large size and adopts a fish-eating habit. Slides 15, 16 and 17 from this presentation from a previous WTT annual get together show what each looks like and indicates where the types spawn: http://www.wildtrout.org/images/PDFs...0wtt_may09.pdf
You can also watch a video of Prof. Ferguson's presentation in several sections on this link: Wild Trout Trust.

PS With the Dollaghan from Lough Neagh, it is almost like a sea trout type of lifestyle - just that the huge lough takes the place of the sea-feeding stage. It is interesting to know that all our British native brown trout stocks were originally derived from sea trout (and also that every variety of brown trout that we have still retains the capability to migrate to sea if conditions prompt it).

Paul,

Is there an essential difference between the dollaghan and any other loch trout? We have big trout in Loch Lomond that run the feeder rivers from August onwards.

malcolm

No essential difference - it is just the colloquial name for that specific population running out of Neagh. Also - because of the size of Neagh, the rivers running into it can be pretty sizeable, so you would fish them pretty much as a sea trout/salmon river.

Even "resident" river brownies migrate from their adult feeding lies to spawning grounds. Trout will always tend to have to travel between where it is optimal to feed and grow well and where is optimal to spawn - as the physical attributes of the habitat favouring each process are so different. This will require migration of some kind - the bigger the feeding/growth payoffs; the bigger the migration can be.
All loch/lough/lake brownies need to spawn in running water - it will just depend on the size of the river/feeder streams and the timing of the run as to whether you can (legally as well as practically) fish for these running fish.

There will always be a selection of different effective strategies and, of course, increased growth and feeding in loughs or the sea will also carry greater risks of predation etc. too. As with everything in life/biology it is a tradeoff of costs and benefits.