Don't Risk It - Learn To Identify A Bull Trout

John Fraley, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 1 Information Officer

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The Bull Trout Identification and Education Program on the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks website has helped thousands of anglers across the western U. S. improve their trout identification skills.

  The site, launched three years ago, is a cooperative educational project of FWP, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Idaho Fish and Game, Idaho Council of Trout Unlimited, and Avista Utilities.

While some people intentionally violate regulations and keep bull trout, illegal harvest most commonly occurs when bull trout are mistaken for brook trout, brown trout, or lake trout.   The goal of this educational Internet site is to reduce this unintentional take of bull trout.

How does it work?   To check it out, go to the FWP home page at www.fwp.state.mt.us under Education, or look on the Fishing page under Angler Education.  

After a brief pre-test, you go on immediately to learn more about trout and to practice your identification skills. Following the training, a test helps you see what you’ve learned and how well you can identify “virtual” fish.   A score of 80% or higher enables you to print a certification verifying you successfully completed the program.

The training helps learners to make the fine distinctions required to correctly identify bull trout from similar trout species such as, lake trout and brook trout. All are chars, that is members of the trout family, that generally have light spots on a dark background.  

Once common throughout the inland Pacific Northwest, bull trout now live in reduced numbers in five western states and two Canadian provinces.   They are extinct in California.   Montana is the bull trout’s stronghold, but even here they face the threat of eventual extinction in some streams.   Bull trout declines—from loss of habitat including clean, cold water, introductions of non-native fish species and angling harvest—led to this species being listed as threatened 1998 under the Endangered Species Act.

Bull trout will benefit the more skilled anglers are at distinguishing them from other trout. So take the bull trout challenge by logging on to the Bull Trout Identification and Education Program at www.fwp.state.mt.us.