YELLOW TROUT REDUX

Following on from Maxy's post about the strange yellow trout in Midsummer Norton, I did what I always do when I am confronted with a British freshwater fish mystery. I e-mailed Colin Higgins. I asked him about the yellow trout, but also asked him if he remembered anything about Pacific trout being found in UK waters, because my trusty Collins Field Guide to The Freshwater Fishes of Britain and Europe which my Godmother gave me as a birthday present in 1973, and which has been invaluable ever since, includes two species of Pacific salmon which have - apparently - been introduced into the White Sea by the Russians.


He wrote:


My yellow trout knowledge is confined to this found web discussion: "Yellow and wild-colored rainbow trout were first used in crossbreeding experiments to determine the pattern of yellow color inheritance. So what you have is the yellow phase of a rainbow. The color phenotypes are explained by a system of two gene loci with two alleles each. The yellow color (allele a) is caused by absence of the dominant allele A controlling wild color. Among the yellow fish (aa) the second gene locus allele B controls palomino and black eye color. Albino and red eye color (allele b) is caused by the absence of the dominant allele B controlling color development. It's like they say. "It's in the genes."Something coming out of the hatchery no doubt."

On pacific salmon in the UK I know one was caught a year or so back in the Tweed and the word was it probably came from the Russian breeding programme via the Barents. A web swot sees one came up the Camel to Wadebridge which may have piqued your interest. From my fading 50 year old memory I don't recall any pacific salmonids entering domestic waters, it's a helluva way round after all. Can't even come up with a viable theory but I'll have a look at my reference books tomorrow.


So, its ongoing. Watch this space...