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I caught more of these last fall than any other time. That's a good thing. Are you guys down in Puget Sound seeing an increase.
Searun Dolly Varden
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Not seeing many here in Moses Lake
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Down here in Puget Sound, most of the rivers are closed.
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FWIW, we caught a lot of Dolly Varden off the beaches in Katmai. I imagine they inhabit other coastal areas of AK as well. I had never heard the term Bull Trout before reading these pages. Many of the Dollies we caught were in the 12” to 16” range. We cooked a couple and returned most. This was in the mid 70s.
The large, anadromous char of Puget Sound are bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus). The range of the Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma) does extend south to northern Washington, but they only occur as small residents in small, high-elevation streams in the Cascade and Olympic mountains. The two are different species.
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These were all caught in the ocean near estuaries. As Preston kindly mentioned, there are two different species. They aren't the lake dwelling species or the inland river type but they do spawn in rivers like other salmonids. They are not the inland form of Dolly Varden now recognized as bull trout. I've caught my share of bull trout and these are a much nicer looking fish. I'll try to locate a photo. I was just wondering if the marine range of these extended as far south as Puget Sound. We we catching them north of Campbell River on Vancouver Island while fishing for pinks and coho. I've never encountered one in the ocean any farther south. Larger ones would go 15 inches.
Years ago, we'd fish the northern Whidbey Island beaches about this time of year for SRCs, and occasionally would get into a few bull trout, some of which exceeded 20" and were pretty stocky. Used Dan Lemaich's Puget Sound Minnow...rolled duck flank feather tail, olive chenille body wound with silver tinsel, and a palmered duck flank collar. I wonder if they still patrol those beaches.
While the range of the bull trout does extend as far north as Southeast Alaska on the coast and the Peace River in the interior it does not occur on Vancouver Island, The Queen Charlotte Islands, or the close inshore islands off of SE Alaska. More correctly thought of as semi-anadromous, bull trout can sometimes decide to remain in fresh water for extended periods of time. Puget Sound (and coastal) bull trout routinely reach lengths of 20 inches and can be much larger, living to an age of 8-10 years. During the saltwater phase of their lives, bull trout adopt the silvery appearance of all salmonids in the salt.
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In Washington State, the native char that are anadromous are Bull Trout. There are some Dolly Varden in the state, but I believe they are in a couple of headwater streams. Dolly Varden and Bull Trout are very difficult to distinguish from one another. There three measurable variables (measurements and counts) that were identified by two researchers named Haas and McPhail to differentiate the two species. At one time is was thought that Dolly Varden were distributed on the coast (both anadromous and non-anadromous) and Bull Trout were interior (non-anadromous fomr). Through genetic analysis, it was discovered not to be the case.
Yes, Alaska definitely has Dolly Varden. I do not know if there are any Bull Trout populations there.
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The WSFW's confusing morass of specificity...trout or immature steelhead, Bull or Dolly
Re:upper NF of the Lewis mile 13 caught a 7 lb Dolly...or looked like one...it's a bull trout?
The great flip flop is it this or that...by definition it was a bull trout...by visual inspection... 'Helly Dolly!!!"
The pic i have of iot is under lock and key on my sharing blocked 15 year old Photobucket acct page.
Re:upper NF of the Lewis mile 13 caught a 7 lb Dolly...or looked like one...it's a bull trout?
The great flip flop is it this or that...by definition it was a bull trout...by visual inspection... 'Helly Dolly!!!"
The pic i have of iot is under lock and key on my sharing blocked 15 year old Photobucket acct page.
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They (Bull Trout) are fairly plentiful in Puget Sound.
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I saw a massive average size increase of the bulls I caught this year versus years past in the same water. Like from an 18-20" average to a 22-24" average, some fish going 25-27". Anyone experience the same?
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Shhhh, mums the word.
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I am pretty sure I once caught a dolly out of the MF Snoqualmie. It was small, and could have been a brook trout.
The dolly fishing in southeast Alaska can be absolutely nuts. The fish average 14" but there are plenty in the 20" range. They can be had on popper/slider flies while salmon fry are outbound.
The dolly fishing in southeast Alaska can be absolutely nuts. The fish average 14" but there are plenty in the 20" range. They can be had on popper/slider flies while salmon fry are outbound.
SquamishPoacher-
I agree it is go thing you are seeing more native char on you local waters. The whole Dolly Varden/bull trout question is interesting with the conventional think up to the late 1980s/early 1990s was that the char of the Puget Sound region were Dolly Varden. However as more information was developed on those two char species it was thought the two could be separated by their appearance (and as Bruce stated physical measurement) however those methods produced confusing results. It was not until genetic tools were developed the native char of the North Puget Sound anadromous rivers were identified as bull trout. This was a significant expansion of the knowledge of the Dolly Varden/bull trout complex where it was commonly accepted that only the Dolly Varden adopted an anadromous life histories. However genetic sampling of north Sound char that were also tagged revealed that the fish were both bull trout and used the anadromous life history.
It is pretty interesting that the bull trout of the PS anadromous rivers adopt a variety of life histories with some fish remaining head water resident fish their entire lives rarely exceeding 10 or 12 inches, others adopt a fluvial life history and other becoming anadromous and some with lakes/reservoirs becoming adfuvial. In keeping with the confusing aspects of these interesting fish it is fairly common to see anadromous fish spawning with fluvial fish or resident fish spawning with either of the other two life histories. In the same way those seems to be significant plastically in those life histories with a surprising number changing life histories during their life times. Of interest is that following a regulation changes on some of the north PS rivers in 1990 and the more than 20 fold increase in the spawning escapements the number of anadromous fish accounted for much of the population increases.
If the growth patterns of your char are similar to what has been seen with the north Puget sound anadromous bull trout those 15 inch fish are between what I would expect for sub-adult fish and adult fish. Those PS fish are typically 5 inch smolts and after the first year of feeding in the salt they return to freshwater in the fall as 10 to 14 inch immature fish (sub-adult), those this return to the salt in the late winter/early spring and a few months later begin their spawning migrations as maturing first time spawners of 16 to 19 inches. As mentioned by Preston these bull trout can be fairly long lived and can achieve significant size.
Ian -
Pretty common to see varying year class strength with bull trout which can result in short term shifts in length distributions. What you describe can be typically when there is a weak year class of first time spawners. Following the massive droughts the juveniles of many of the salmonid species had very low survivals. That included the bull trout so it should be expected that the number of first time spawners (mostly 4 year old fish) this past year to be depressed.
BTW - Even though I know these char are bull trout when I have my fly rod in hand I still tend to think of them as "Dollies"; old habitats die hard!
Curt
I agree it is go thing you are seeing more native char on you local waters. The whole Dolly Varden/bull trout question is interesting with the conventional think up to the late 1980s/early 1990s was that the char of the Puget Sound region were Dolly Varden. However as more information was developed on those two char species it was thought the two could be separated by their appearance (and as Bruce stated physical measurement) however those methods produced confusing results. It was not until genetic tools were developed the native char of the North Puget Sound anadromous rivers were identified as bull trout. This was a significant expansion of the knowledge of the Dolly Varden/bull trout complex where it was commonly accepted that only the Dolly Varden adopted an anadromous life histories. However genetic sampling of north Sound char that were also tagged revealed that the fish were both bull trout and used the anadromous life history.
It is pretty interesting that the bull trout of the PS anadromous rivers adopt a variety of life histories with some fish remaining head water resident fish their entire lives rarely exceeding 10 or 12 inches, others adopt a fluvial life history and other becoming anadromous and some with lakes/reservoirs becoming adfuvial. In keeping with the confusing aspects of these interesting fish it is fairly common to see anadromous fish spawning with fluvial fish or resident fish spawning with either of the other two life histories. In the same way those seems to be significant plastically in those life histories with a surprising number changing life histories during their life times. Of interest is that following a regulation changes on some of the north PS rivers in 1990 and the more than 20 fold increase in the spawning escapements the number of anadromous fish accounted for much of the population increases.
If the growth patterns of your char are similar to what has been seen with the north Puget sound anadromous bull trout those 15 inch fish are between what I would expect for sub-adult fish and adult fish. Those PS fish are typically 5 inch smolts and after the first year of feeding in the salt they return to freshwater in the fall as 10 to 14 inch immature fish (sub-adult), those this return to the salt in the late winter/early spring and a few months later begin their spawning migrations as maturing first time spawners of 16 to 19 inches. As mentioned by Preston these bull trout can be fairly long lived and can achieve significant size.
Ian -
Pretty common to see varying year class strength with bull trout which can result in short term shifts in length distributions. What you describe can be typically when there is a weak year class of first time spawners. Following the massive droughts the juveniles of many of the salmonid species had very low survivals. That included the bull trout so it should be expected that the number of first time spawners (mostly 4 year old fish) this past year to be depressed.
BTW - Even though I know these char are bull trout when I have my fly rod in hand I still tend to think of them as "Dollies"; old habitats die hard!
Curt
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Dollies has been the common use name for what we're catching around here on a regular basis. It isn't until I bring one to hand in the several pound range that the term "Bull" seems appropriate.
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