Students in my local school Outdoor Ed class tell me that Alberta's trout have names similar to the superheroes that they meet on YouTube, PlayStation, and at the movies. They like the idea of battling creatures named Cutthroat, Tiger, and Bull, and even against the powers of their friendlier-sounding partners, Rainbow, Golden, and Brook. Anything that encourages young folk to go fishing is fine with me. Many adult anglers, however, especially those with fly rods, seem to favour the trout with a more common, less Hollywood-type name: Brown.
What is it about the brown trout that generates so many photos, and attracts visitors from across Canada, the States, and even some from Europe?
They come to fish the waters in Alberta where brown trout thrive—the Bow for example, Prairie Creek, the Raven, and the famed Stauffer Creek—the headsprings, riparian land, and aquatic inhabitants of which Alberta anglers, landowners, and Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) have spent significant effort to protect.
The name 'Brown' doesn't do them justice—they're more golden or olive-brown, with dark brown or black spots along their sides, back and dorsal fin. Some develop an orange-red belly in spawning season. In a few streams they take on a silvery hue. They certainly attract cameras.
p>Maybe their appeal comes from being a worthy opponent as they grow and become aggressive predators of smaller fish. Whatever it is, brown trout certainly deserve our respect. About 2,000 years ago, Roman author Aelian, who's credited with being the first fly-fishing author, wrote about fishing in Macedonia with "a curl of red wool" for "fish with speckled skins." It's evident too that in A Treatyse of Fysshynge With an Angle (1496), brown trout were a favourite of Dame Juliana Berners, "because he is a right dainty fish and also a right fervent biter….he is in season from March until Michaelmas. He is on clean gravel bottom and in a stream." Izaak Walton had a few nice things to say about them too in reference to their presence in the UK "a fish highly valued, both in this and foreign nations."That reverence and admiration for the brown continues to this day. For example, Katie Morrison, an accomplished fly fisher wrote, "There is nothing like watching the big square nose of a brown trout rise up out of the water and gently sip a dry fly off the top and then, all gentleness now forgotten, the sound of the line zipping through the reel as the fish runs, flashing that beautiful yellow, and showing its strength and endurance. It's really something special." Sounds to me like she sees browns as the real superheroes of the trout world.
Originally from Europe and Asia, brown trout came to Canada in 1883 from a hatchery in Scotland and were stocked in Newfoundland. Forty-one years later some were shipped to Alberta and put into the Raven River. Then in 1925, browns were also introduced into the Bow River system—apparently as the result of a stocking truck breaking its axle as it passed the Bow and the driver not knowing what else to do to keep them alive.
Possibly adding further to the mystique and appeal of the brown trout, is that its status in Canada is classified as "Exotic/Alien" in the current General Status of Alberta Wild Species report. As such, browns are now stocked by the province and ACA only where they already occur, or where there is no possibility of them out-competing or hybridizing with native trout species. Our native trout remain the priority.
Of the 2,228,822 trout stocked in Alberta lakes and ponds in 2024, less than three percent were brown trout. A factor in this small percentage is a relatively new arrival to Alberta, Tiger! The tiger trout is a sterile hybrid between the brook trout and the brown trout, so raising tigers requires using brown trout eggs. Those eggs are in limited supply and have a poor survival rate when taken. As demand for tigers grows, the availability of brown trout eggs to culture brown trout in the hatcheries diminishes.
However, our lakes and rivers are warming, and that trend is predicted to continue. Brown trout are reputably more tolerant of silting and warm water than the native trout of Alberta. So, it may well be that one day we will need more browns stocked, at least in our lakes, to ensure fishing opportunities for those Outdoor Ed students and others. Maybe the brown trout will become the superhero of choice for them too.
Photo credit: Josh Nugent.
