I think I read that in Idaho, there are no Dollie Vardon's, only bull trout. Another interesting fact about bull trout is that they are a major indicator of water quality. They are very sensitive to any type of polution, siltation or the like. We used to catch them all the time when I was a kid, not real common now. I have seen them as large as 12 lbs. Some old timers give them a bad rap as "smolt killers" and bonk them and throw them back in like a squaw fish.. Thats not right, but you know how some people are set in their ways

So what do you call a fish of ~1.5lb caught at the Oxbow boat launch area during winter steelhead season?
What about the little ones down at the big pool by the Indian Reservation during the summertime? Are those just feeding in that estuarine environment or are they just there because it's a deep hole?
Does anyone know what the general size range is for spawning Hoh dollies/bulls?

The whole phylogeny of western char populations continues to be very confusing. It's a never ending war between the lumpers and the splitters. In Alaska, it's the Dolly vs Arctic char debate, here it's the Dolly vs bull trout debate. I once thought I had it all straight when I was told bull trout were just an inland landlocked version of anadramous Dolly Varden. Now I come to find out through this thread that the anadramous char in the Skagit are bull trout??? Will anyone ever figure this thing out?

If the difference is so minute that it takes genetic testing to distinguish the species then I wonder how long the debate will continue. Maybe it will be like Steelhead being reclassified the same as Rainbow...

rockhopper-

The bull trout being studied in the Hoh seem to be alot like steelhead in that there are resident, anadromous and estuarine behaviors being observed.

In my opinion what you caught at the oxbow would be a resident bull trout.

Technically, they are amphidromous, fluvial, adfluvial, and resident. Not anadromous at all. . .technically

FP

FnP ... In Alaska, it's pretty simple:

if you can drive to it, a dolly varden

if you have to fly to it, an arctic char

Marketing Gimmick

>amphidromous: Moving from fresh water to the sea, or vice versa, for nonreproductive purposes such as feeding.

Yet they also migrate from salt to frsh to spawn. So are they amphidromous, fluvial, adfluvial, and resident- *and* anadromous? Even more confusing is they seem to have no mind for pattern. They may be resident for years then live amphidromous and vice versa.

I'm interested in their homing back to spawn areas. They wander all over, do they spawn random as well (or more randomly than other salmonids?)