Bull Trout Facts
Salvelinus confluentus
- Family: Salmonidae
- Maximum Size: Four pounds in streams, twenty pounds in lakes.
- Coloration: Yellow to crimson spots on olive green to brown back, white
on belly. Unlike the brook trout, spots are absent on the tail and dorsal
fin.
- Sexual Maturity: Matures at four to seven and can live to twelve years of
age.
- Spawning Times: In the fall, when stream temperatures drop below 48 degrees
Fahrenheit.
- Specialization: Bull Trout are designed to live in very cold water.
- Relatives: Dolly Varden are a close, but distinct, species.
- Diet: Feed on insects as juveniles; older fish prey on young trout, salmon,
whitefish, sculpins, etc.
- Migrations: Some bull trout, especially subadults, are anadromous and migrate
to sea. Most bull trout prefer the headwater areas of river systems and spend
their lives traveling the mainstem, tributaries and lakes of river systems.
- Challenges: Poor water quality (warm temperatures, sediments); degradation
of habitat through removal of trees on mountain slopes and riparian vegetation;
hybridization with nonnative char (brown trout, brook trout); fragmentation
of populations by dams and degraded habitat; targeted extermination; and human-caused
flooding or landslide events.