name this fish?

[BearInTheWoods]

Here's the background... the only trout in my lake is supposed to be lakers. They've now been stocking the "silver algonquins" for about 6 years, they are basically shiny lakers (no spots).
My bro says he caught a rainbow at the base of the dam last year. I thought he was lying. After this catch I'm not so sure.
My dad has terrible vision and thought it was a laker until bringing it home and seeing in the light.

I think it has coloring reminiscent of a brown but is likely just a regular old lake trout.
My dad says lake/rainbow/speckle hybrid
My bro says rainbow/speckle

Any guesses??

 

[wschinke]

Splake most likely: square tail, ivory-tipped reddish fins and blue-haloed dots on a typical laker pattern of olive/white mottling. Could be full speck though. One lake I know in the Temiskaming area is "known" to have only lakers....but a small stream connects it to a crazy productive speck lake. So there's both, even though there's only "supposed" to be lakers.

Nice fish if it's a full speck!

 

[MuskiesnBJJ]

Im gonna go with Steve. It looks like a Steve.

j/k a Brookie?

 

[BearInTheWoods]

There is a speckle lake "connected", but it is through many shallow swamps and is quite a distance. My dad has been fishing the lake for all his 60 years and my grandpops fished and then professionally guided on it and surrounding lakes for another 30 years before that and this would be the first speckle that's been heard of.

The MNR did dump a truck of rainbows about 30 years ago but we haven't seen one in 21 years

I agree the tail is mostly definitely speckle style but it just baffles me how it got here and why now lol

 

[Dozer]

Ooo la la - this is an interesting specimen. Its not a laker because of the tail and presence of the red dots and blue hues. I'm gonna say brookie although it could very well be a naturally occurring splake. You would be surprised what sort of swamp water brookies can migrate through - think Spring when the water levels are elevated and the water is still cold - they are everywhere.

I'm gonna forward these pics to someone who can positively ID this fish without counting those intestinal flaps or whatever the hell they are.

 

[BearInTheWoods]

Thanks! Has really baffled the crap out of me... I'm the least equipped in my family to identify species lol. I haven't fished specks since I was a wee kid in the 90's so all my knowledge on them has been gleaned from the many sweet posts on the forum.

Through the swamps it is not so much the water levels they contend with but the armies of perch they'd have to maneuver through. I know it is possible but I didn't think very likely. I also figured if it were gonna happen it would have been a lot longer ago than now.

Could also be a swarm of these things waiting to be caught that we just don't know about I would be super excited to learn splake are moving in on my territory, only ever caught them through the ice.

 

[CraigsonJ]

Definitely not a rainbow.
I believe the fish taken from Algonquin (not necesarily in this lake) are brookies which some say the natural brookies are the 'silvery ones'.

Did it have spots on its face/gill plate?
I could be wrong but if it has spots on its face And belly than its a splake. If not then brookie.

 

[rybak]

The slight blue color and head says thats a brookie, but the tail is lightly forked like splake. 50/50 bet in my eyes

 

[cork]

to me it looks like a perfect brookie. great size too congrats

 

[BearInTheWoods]

Congrats to my Dad haha

Craigson - most definitely lake trout, just a specific strain they've been breeding since... turns out I'm getting old... 2002. My Uncle works at the hatchery, I know what fish go where and when in the County.

Unfortunately my only view of the fish has been pictures. I left the cottage earlier on the day it was caught

 

[Dozer]

100% brook trout ID'd by a guy who worked with lakers, splake and brookies all his life.