Back in the early 2000s, I had already advanced beyond a newbie fly fisher, but I hadn't really given much thought to fish and their native habitat. I was living out west at the time, and was camping in Sequoia National Park. I had my fly rod along, and came across a nice littler creek and got into some pretty trout. Looking back I hadn't paid much attention to what kind of trout they were, but just enjoyed catching them. Am I correct at identifying them as California Golden Trout?




I know there are several different subspecies. Any help in identifying these would be greatly appreciated.

Maybe. One thing that muddies the water is that many, if not most "golden trout" in CA lakes and streams outside their native range in the southern Sierra are actually rainbow-golden hybrids. The breedstock in the Cottonwood Lakes were used to plant many other waters, and at some point during the were found to have been contaminated by rainbows. There is more info at the following page -

https://flyfishingthesierra.com/cottonwood_gtcreek.htm

Still, that is a pretty fish, whatever it is.

Very nice.........Aurelio

Thanks Motosacto and Odanata for those good resources. That pdf booklet is especially nice. But after looking into it a bit, I believe Spec is probably right. It doesn't seem like a golden, rather more of a rainbow or hybrid as BrianN noted. BrianN, no I haven't been up there recently. I no longer live out west, and those pictures I posted are 15 years old by now. I was just looking back at old photos and wishing that perhaps I actually did catch a California Golden trout.

There are some Kern River Golden Trout that look like and can interbreed with rainbows. The Volcano Creek Golden Trout is the real beauty of the lot. I think they are the prettiest fish in North America. With a bit of a hike they can easily be caught in the Golden Trout Wilderness where I took this picture.

Golden Trout… I want to catch the fish someday…