Nature Bulletin No. 718   May 18, 1963
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Seymour Simon, President
David H. Thompson, Senior Naturalist

****:THE TROUT

Illinois is not a trout state. Only the Lake Trout of our Lake Michigan 
waters is native but it has been almost wiped out during the past 
twenty years by the depredations of the parasitic marine lamprey 
(discussed in Nature Bulletin No. 553). For many years small numbers 
of hatchery-reared Brook Trout, Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout from 
other parts of the country have been released in the streams and lakes 
of northern Illinois. These gamy aristocrats are novelties in this region 
and attract large numbers of fishermen. However, few survive summer 
water temperatures as high as 70 degrees Fahrenheit and none find 
conditions suitable for spawning successfully.

As a rule the many kinds of trout are strikingly marked or brightly 
colored. All have the streamlined bodies found among strong 
swimmers. Like their near relatives, the salmon, they have tiny scales 
that are imbedded in the skin.

Trout differ most from other freshwater fish in their breeding habits. 
Instead of spawning in spring or summer, they lay their eggs in 
autumn or winter. Trout eggs are large, usually about one-fifth inch in 
diameter. In the cold water at these seasons the embryos develop very 
slowly, often requiring 50 or 100 days for the eggs to hatch. In many 
species the eggs are buried in the gravel of a stream bed, thus giving 
protection during their long incubation.

Trout hatcheries became popular long ago because of the ease with 
which eggs can be stripped from a "ripe" female, fertilized with milt 
from a male, then allowed to incubate in cold running spring water. 
Within two or three weeks the dark eye spots of the embryos can be 
seen through the transparent egg shells. At this stage the eggs can be 
packed in damp moss and stay alive on trips lasting many weeks, if 
they are kept cool. In this way trout were transplanted all over the 
world long before the days of air travel. Unlike the European carp 
which has become a nuisance here, American trout have improved 
fishing in many foreign countries.

Originally, the Brook Trout, or Speckled Trout, was found only in 
eastern United States and Canada. Now it thrives in many of our 
western mountain streams and lakes which previously were barren. 
This trim, brilliantly colored fish with white edging on the lower fins 
is one of America's favorite game fish. Because it needs pure cold 
water, it is disappearing from many waters as a result of pollution, 
deforestation, soil erosion and warming. Almost a half million pounds 
which were reared in commercial hatcheries in the northern states and 
Canada are sold annually in the Chicago market.

The Rainbow Trout is a native of waters draining into the Pacific from 
Alaska to California. Colored greenish-blue above and silvery below, it 
is dotted with small black spots and has a prominent red band along 
the sides. Certain young rainbows go to sea and return to their parent 
stream after a few years with a quite different coloration -- silvery with 
a bluish head and back, but without the red band and black spots. 
Then they are called Steelhead Trout. This has become the most 
cosmopolitan of all our trout.

The Brown, German Brown or Loch Leven Trout is a native of Europe 
introduced into America about a century ago. Because it can endure 
warmer water and stand up under stream conditions that go along with 
civilization, it often furnishes sport fishing where otherwise there 
would be none. The back and sides are olive to greenish brown with 
black and red spots.

The only trout fishing in the forest preserves is at Axe Head Lake 
located one mile west of Park Ridge between West River Road and the 
DesPlaines River.