Dolly Varden (Or Bull Trout?) From Chester Lake Today

[jacenbeers]

Today my wife and I hiked into Chester Lake. The conditions were beautiful. We didnt have much time to do a lot of fishing but I really wanted to catch a Dolly Varden and a cutthroat. Chester apparently is the only lake with Varden in AB. On my fifth cast I caught this little guy. It looks exactly like a bull trout. What is the difference?

The cutties are very active in there and there were tons in the creek and in the lake. I wish I brought my flyrod. Next weekend I will have to remember to bring it. Here is a picture of the DV I caught and of two cutties from the creek.

[Albertafisher]

Very nice dolly you got there! good job!

[jacenbeers]

Does anybody know the visual difference between a DV and a Bull?

[RayL42]

"The bull trout, Salvelinus confluentus, is a char of the family Salmonidae native to northwestern North America.[2] Historically, S. confluentus has been known as the "Dolly Varden" (S. malma), but was re-classified as a separate species in 1980.[3] Bull trout are listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.[4]."

"It appears that the first recorded use of the Dolly Varden name to refer to a species of fish, was to S. confluentus, now commonly known as the bull trout. This was likely due to over-lapping ranges and similar appearances among members of the two species."

Form Wikipedia

[.257Weatherby]

I used to be able to tell the difference, but have have forgotten the tell tale features between the two...

"The Bull Trout is a long, slender fish. It's head and jaws are big in proportion to it's body. It is olive-green to blue-grey in color on the back, and turning almost silver on the sides with a white belly. Yellow, orange, or red spots are found on the sides and back.
The pelvic and anal fins will have white leading edges, not followed by black. The belly and lower sides are sometimes orange to red in males during the spawn. The key to correctly identifying the Bull Trout is the absence of black spots on the dorsal fin."

http://www.fishalberta.com/Species/BullT/bull_trout.htm
The link should take you to a page with more info than I clipped from the article.

What you have there is a lil Dolly....
Tight Lines,
Rob

[Big Bull]

My understanding was that a Dolly Varden was a bull trout that was on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide, and was able to spend some of it's life in the ocean - sort of like a steelhead and rainbow trout. Mind you, it has been over 25 years since I looked up this information.

[DuckBrat]

Hmmm,

If I remeber Kyle Mcneillys articles form AB fishinhg guide these were called Northern Dolly Vardens a slighlty different strain that the west Coast Variety.
They have that cool charcoal color unlike the bluish hue of the west coast dollies. The fish in Chester were once thought to be Artic Char.

BTW the head, mouth, and eye positioning is a good indicator to differeintiate Bull Trout vs. Dolly.

[Pudelpointer]

On young (small) fish it is virtually impossible to tell the difference. Once the fish reach adulthood, you can sometimes tell by the dorsal fin: bull trout have no spots of any kind on their dorsal, while dolly varden often have very light pinkish dots (hard to see) on their dorsal. Their are some differences in their eye / skull structure, but unless you have one of each in front of you, they will not help much with identification unless you are good with the calipers and a calculator.

[jts1]

The first Dolly I had out of Chester was way darker. It was allmost a deep purple and black. Is this just because of the time of year ?

[walleyechaser]

looks like a dolly to me, the heads look a lil different

[jacenbeers]

Hey thanks for the responses guys. I am glad it is a Dolly and am happy to mark it off of my 2010 fishing bucket list. I hope I catch more this weekend when I am going to Chester with everybody.

I have a strange question then about Dolly Vardens. Is Chester Creek attached to other bodies of water? I saw tons of Cutties in the creek and the creek flows pretty steadily and I wondered if the Dollies and Cutties would mix with populations from other lakes. The Creek looks like it might flow into Mud Lake and there is Burstall Creek nearby as well. It seems like most of the water in the area seems to drain into Spray. Would this mean that the population could spread?

[DuckBrat]

Originally Posted by jts1

The first Dolly I had out of Chester was way darker. It was allmost a deep purple and black. Is this just because of the time of year ?

Try catching them late in the season the spawning colors become like that of the arctic char. If you are lucky enough to get one over 3 or 4 pounds it makes for quite a picture!

[DuckBrat]

Originally Posted by jacenbeers

Hey thanks for the responses guys. I am glad it is a Dolly and am happy to mark it off of my 2010 fishing bucket list. I hope I catch more this weekend when I am going to Chester with everybody.

I have a strange question then about Dolly Vardens. Is Chester Creek attached to other bodies of water? I saw tons of Cutties in the creek and the creek flows pretty steadily and I wondered if the Dollies and Cutties would mix with populations from other lakes. The Creek looks like it might flow into Mud Lake and there is Burstall Creek nearby as well. It seems like most of the water in the area seems to drain into Spray. Would this mean that the population could spread?

The northern Dollies have made it down Chester creek and into Mud Lake, Burstall creek, and into the river that parallels spray trail in the park. Hmmm seems to me Kyle Mcneilly made a prediction on this!

[Riverbc]

I realize this is an old post, but I just stumbled on it...and realized I could provide some insight.
Until the early 1990s, Dolly Varden and Bull Trout were considered the same fish. Visually they are very hard to tell apart. The big difference between the two is Dolly Varden are anadromous. In otherwards they go to the ocean, but return to freshwater to spawn. They are pretty much coastal fish, and don't appear in streams to far from the ocean.
In 1974 Chester lake was stocked with what was thought to be arctic char, but the fish were later identified to be dolly varden.

[fishman]

They identified them as red char from quebec....is what i have read

[BeeGuy]

We've had several discussions on the Bull Trout/Dolly Varden dilemma, and you have summarized the info quite well.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by fishman

They identified them as red char from quebec....is what i have read

arctic char?

[Riverbc]

Originally Posted by fishman

They identified them as red char from quebec....is what i have read

here is some stocking info http://srd.alberta.ca/FishWildlife/F...lberta2007.pdf

[jacenbeers]

Oldest thread ever. Why did this get brought back? I was such a young man when this was originally created.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by jacenbeers

Oldest thread ever. Why did this get brought back? I was such a young man when this was originally created.

Man, go back and read some of your first threads. Classic material.

Nice rainbow btw

[Riverbc]

Originally Posted by jacenbeers

Oldest thread ever. Why did this get brought back? I was such a young man when this was originally created.

because sometimes new info comes to light..and why start a new thread? Hence the search function.

[tight line]

The cool thing is, Dolly or A.C, looking at the dates they were stocked, they are definately reproducing!!!

[McLeod]

They are Dollies and yes they are down in mud