My missus was looking at some photo's of beautiful wild Trout I had caught a while ago.

Lovely little things they were & I enthused about the butter yellow belly,
the bright red & black spots dotted all over,
the metallic blue patch on the gill plates,
the overall green sheen to the body leading to a dark back,
finally topped off by parr marks that were a range of colours mixed to a dark hue.

So what does she ask me?.....why is is called a BROWN Trout!!! any suggestions?

Peter.

peter, someone with a total lack of imagination named that fish.
Its far prettier than the, exotically named "Rainbow Trout".

A very nice description you give there.

Couldn't agree more Cranfield,

can only assume that the crusty old Ichthyologist who named the fish all those years ago, must have had an almighty hangover from his port the night before, his dark glasses on, & have been in a major depression after a big loss at the races!!!

Lack of imagination is one reason...any more?

When taken from peaty waters the fish tend to be much darker and browner, also since they are the same fish as sea-trout I would assume in the rivers where both trout originally abounded they were "brown" compared to the silvery sea-trout.
It should also be noted that most rivers holding large runs of these silver (sea) trout are also peaty. Thus while on the Chalk streams you had Trout,the native fish being quite silvery any-way, and little or no sea-trout, on highland and west country rivers you had the two types, Sea and Brown.

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