A Brief History of Brake Trout

Even though you may never seen one, I thought I would share some information on brake trout since many anglers have never heard of them.

Brake trout are a hybrid trout - a cross between a female brown trout and a male lake trout.

Utah fish hatcheries started producing brake trout in 1993 as part of a hybrid experimentation program. Since brake trout are more resistant to whirling disease, it was hoped these trout could be released into infected waters and survive better (and thereby increase trout fishing opportunities for anglers).

Like many hybrid trout, most brake trout were sterile due to the fact of how they were produced (i.e, eggs were heat shocked). Some non-sterile brake trout were produced successfully, but they tended to have lower hatch and survival rates.

In addition to these difficulties, there was a problem with cannibalism - where larger fish were eating the smaller fry.

Due to all these difficulties, the program was discontinued in 1997. It wasn't cost effective to continue to the program. The last stocking of brake trout took place at Mill Meadow Res and Porcupine Res.