Physical Characteristics

This species of char has a background color of gray-brown, overlaid with light spots that vary in intensity with age and environment. The background color covers the back, sides and fins and serves to highlight the lighter gray spots. Lake trout in large lakes are sometimes so silvery that the spots are difficult to see. Spotting is usually more intense on small fish. The caudal is deeply forked. The mouth is large and terminal with strong teeth on both jaws.

Habitat and Range

Lake trout are the largest of the trouts, the record weighing almost 46.3 kg (102 lb). They were fished commercially in the Great Lakes until lampreys, overharvest and pollution extirpated or severely reduced the stocks. Commercial fisheries still exist in some smaller lakes in northern Canada. They are native only to the northern parts of North America, principally Canada but also Alaska and, to some extent, the northeastern United States. Lake trout have been introduced into many other parts of the world, mainly into Europe but also into South America and certain parts of Asia. In Canada, approximately 25% of the world's lake trout lakes are found in the province of Ontario. Even at that, only 1% of Ontario's lakes contain lake trout.

Breeding and Spawning

Lake trout have been known, very rarely, to hybridise in nature with the brook trout but such hybrids are almost invariably reproductively sterile. Hybrids are also artificially propagated in hatcheries and then planted into lakes in an effort to provide sport fishing opportunities.