Maybe that's why they call them "Brown Trout"…because they are somewhat brown in color! That fish does not appear to have the coloring of the browns that I have seen. Most of the ones I have seen have a light olive brown color when first caught and turn darker the longer they are out of water. It's entirely possible that this fish may have been a freaky cross breed of nature or man.

I had heard that years ago they had played around with a bunch of different species of salmon and steelhead in developing that lakes fishery, and I am pretty sure that they even tried to do some cross breeding to develop a species of fish that would successfully survive and reproduce there. I know that the Cowlitz stocks of salmon and steelhead played a big role in developing that fishery. And look what a genetic mess we have here (especially steelhead)!

Cowlitzfisherman <img border="0" alt="[santa]" title="" src="graemlins/santa.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[santa]" title="" src="graemlins/santa.gif" />