The first brown trout to be brought to this country (1880) were from Germany in the form of fertilized eggs. These eggs were obtained from the president of the German Fish Culturists Association, Baron Friedrich Felix von Behr, by Fred Mather of the U.S. Fish Commission. Many subsequent shipments of brown trout eggs came from Germany as well as from Scotland and England and the fish were initially stocked in New York and Michigan.

Some claim to be able to differentiate between the German and Scottish (Loch Leven, because some of the Scottish eggs were from this lake)) strains, usually based on color differences. The idea being that the more silvery-colored fish are descended from the Loch Leven strain while those with more brown and yellow coloring were "German browns" or "von Behr trout". In fact, the multiple strains have been so mixed over a hundred years of hatchery and wild breeding that it is unlikely that anything like a pure strain of either remains. Color differences are far more likely due to environmental factors; the colors of all of the trouts vary widely due to the "background" colors of their habitats.