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.

Hybrid Trout

Most people are familiar with Rainbow, Brown and Brook trout. You may even have heard of Steelhead, Golden, and Lake trout. But have you ever heard of Splake or Brake trout?

These are hybrid trout. When more than one species of trout exists in the same body of water, they sometimes interbreed. The offspring are hybrids.

Some common hybrid trout include:

1. Brownbow - which is cross between a male Brown trout and and female Rainbow trout


2. Splake - which is cross between a male Speckled (Brook) trout and a female Lake trout


3. Brookinaw - which is cross between a female Brook trout and a male Lake trout (Lake trout are also called Mackinaw trout)


4. Brake- which is cross between a female Brown trout and a male Lake trout


5. Tiger - which is cross between a Brown and Brook trout

Many of these hybrids are produced in fish hatcheries. Splake trout, for example, have only been successfully produced in hatcheries. They've been around since the 1870's.

Splake trout are primarily stocked in Canada and northern U.S. states. These trout are very similar in appearance to Brook trout. The primary difference is that the tail in Splake trout is more forked than in Brook trout.

Brake trout have been produced in Utah hatcheries since 1993. But due to difficulties in the program and low success rates this hybrid program was terminated.

Brownbow trout are also very prevalent in Utah. It's been rumored that these trout may be blind due to cataracts on their eyes.

While it does happen, hybridization is not always a good thing. You can read more about this in my next post.