Photo by Mike Heine on iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 · specimen identified as Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus
Rainbow trout
Oncorhynchus mykiss
- When
- Mar–Jun — March, April, May, June, September, October, November. Earlier in the south, later in the north.
- Where it holds
- Cold rivers, tailwaters and stocked lakes across the continent.
- How to know it
- A pink-red band down the flank, small black spots over the whole body and tail.
- What to know
- Stocked almost everywhere, wild in the west. The sea-run form is steelhead.
- The tactic
- Nymphs under an indicator in rivers; small spoons and float-fished bait in lakes.
Seasons, size limits and catch limits change every year and differ by water body. Check the current regulations for your province or state before you fish.
Found in these regions
- Boreal North & Taiga
- Boreal Forest & Shield
- Acadian Forest & Atlantic Coast
- Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands
- Northeast Atlantic Coast & Piedmont
- Appalachian Highlands
- Central Hardwoods & Interior Plateaus
- Southeastern Piedmont & Coastal Plain
- Gulf Coast & Mississippi Lowlands
- Florida Peninsula
- Prairies & Great Plains
- Western Mountains & Interior Plateaus
- Pacific Maritime
- Mediterranean California
- Deserts & Dry Basins
- Hawaiʻi & the Tropics
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Olive-gold flanks, a spiny first dorsal, and the big glassy eye that gives it the name and lets it hunt in low light.
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Bronze-brown with vertical bars, red eye, and a jaw that ends level with the eye — not past it.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Joshua Johnson · CC BY 4.0
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Long torpedo body, duck-like jaws, light bean-shaped spots on a dark green flank.
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