06-30-2022, 09:00 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-01-2022, 04:42 PM by wiperhunter2.)
Here is the reply I got from Chris, about that tiger's color:
I'm not firm on this and it's not something that's published in books, but usually attribute a lot of the coloration of the salmonids to what type of water they are inhabiting. There's no doubt that fish color up for the spawn, but my observation is that the trout that are using open water in standing waters have a lot less color and take on a more silver appearance. We see this with brown trout caught in reservoirs, rainbow trout and tiger trout as well. This makes sense for a fish that doesn't want to be easily seen in open water - which is that the silver tends to blend in with the rest of the water, like a mirror, and there is some countershading on the back and belly to help camouflage from above and below. We see this with ocean fish all the time. Most fish in the open water of the ocean just have a silver body with some countershading. And then the trout that spend more time in either streams or rivers, or more shallow and complex habitat in a reservoir tend to be more colored up, which seems to assist with all the different scenarios found in shallower water. [/font][/size][/color][font="Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Here's a quick article[/font][color=#1d2228][size=small][font="Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] that talks more at length on this for ocean and river run fish. I believe we're seeing these same forms of coloration with trout.
I'm not firm on this and it's not something that's published in books, but usually attribute a lot of the coloration of the salmonids to what type of water they are inhabiting. There's no doubt that fish color up for the spawn, but my observation is that the trout that are using open water in standing waters have a lot less color and take on a more silver appearance. We see this with brown trout caught in reservoirs, rainbow trout and tiger trout as well. This makes sense for a fish that doesn't want to be easily seen in open water - which is that the silver tends to blend in with the rest of the water, like a mirror, and there is some countershading on the back and belly to help camouflage from above and below. We see this with ocean fish all the time. Most fish in the open water of the ocean just have a silver body with some countershading. And then the trout that spend more time in either streams or rivers, or more shallow and complex habitat in a reservoir tend to be more colored up, which seems to assist with all the different scenarios found in shallower water. [/font][/size][/color][font="Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Here's a quick article[/font][color=#1d2228][size=small][font="Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] that talks more at length on this for ocean and river run fish. I believe we're seeing these same forms of coloration with trout.