bull trout vs dolly varden

BC
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/bulltrout_bc.pdf

USA
http://training.fws.gov/library/Pubs1/bulltrout.pdf

for some reason those links arent working for me xray could you try posting them again?

thanks alot

According to the reading I have done in the last while, the major difference seems to be that Dolly Varden are a coastal, anadromous form of char, while bull trout are strictly freshwater char. While resembling each other very closely, there are genetic differences that can be identified clearly through DNA analysis. In all likelihood, if you catch a char with yellow, orange or pink spots west of the Coast mountain range, it is a Dolly. If you catch one inland of the Coast mountains it is almost certainly a bull.

In my experience the bulls are much more of a lighter fish versus darker for dollies. Simple but distinct...
Dollies seem to have more distinguished spots on the dark background while bulls have lighter spots or circles.

Different areas of the province may differ I dunno. But the coastal bull trout here are also very similar to the ones I have
caught in central/eastern Oregon. Just my :2cents:

Bluesteele

Another difference to help identify, Dolly - mouth extends back to the eye, Bull - mouth extends past the eye.

How about the ones in the Squamish system? Dollies or bulls? I remember back in the day when the Mamquam actually had fish returning, the dollies were chrome bullets with light coloured spots

barskull said:

How about the ones in the Squamish system? Dollies or bulls? I remember back in the day when the Mamquam actually had fish returning, the dollies were chrome bullets with light coloured spots

Click to expand...

This system has both dollies and bulls in it.

Hotrod