Other Common Names:

State Record:

Identifying Features:

Brook trout have a dark olive body with a brownish to greenish back and light worm-like markings. The sides are pale with several small blue-bordered red spots. The lower fins have dark and light edges.

Typical Adult:

Length: Up to 18 inches (sometimes up to 34 inches)
Weight: Up to 3 pounds (may reach 14 pounds)
Life span: Up to 15 years

Habitat:

Brook trout live in clear and cold streams, lakes, and ponds, often with access to sea, but are mostly found in the headwaters of spring-fed streams. The preferred water temperature is 53-56 °F.

Feeding Behavior:

Brook trout feed on tiny larval insects, small fish, and occasionally, field mice and snakes.

Reproductive Behavior (Spawning):

When: Late summer and fall
Preferred Water Temperature: 40-49 °F
How: The female digs several redds (depressions) in a gravel bed in the headwaters of a small stream. Adults do not guard the nest.

Did You Know:

Prime brook trout habitat has been lost to stream channelization, dam building, pollution, and streambank erosion caused by overgrazing and deforestation.

A sea-run brook trout is known as a "salter" or "sea trout."

A brook trout in the Great Lakes that migrates up its tributaries to spawn is known as a "coaster."

Other Common Names:

Walleyed Pike, Pickerel, Jackfish, Doré

State Record:

13 pounds 7 ounces

Identifying Features:

Walleye have a milky cast to their eyes. They have a long, round, olive body that has gold flecks on the sides with a white tip to the lower fork of the tail. There is a distinct black blotch on the rear end of the first dorsal fin.

Typical Adult:

Length: Up to 30 inches
Weight: Up to 10 pounds
Life span: Up to 26 years

Habitat:

Walleye are most numerous in large, cool, windswept lakes with low to moderate clarity. They also live in large rivers. The preferred water temperature is 65-75 °F.

Feeding Behavior:

Walleye most prefer other fish, but also eat aquatic insects, leeches, crayfish, snails, and larval salamanders. They normally feed in dim light.

Reproductive Behavior (Spawning):

When: Spring
Preferred Water Temperature: 45-50 ° F
How: No nests are built. The female scatters eggs randomly along a shallow, windswept shoreline with rubble bottom. Adults do not guard the eggs or fry (young).

Did You Know:

Blue walleye were once common in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario but are now thought to be extinct.

Walleye are named for their prominent, milky eyes.

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