Fishing Forum

What exactly is a kamloop rainbow anyway?Is it a breed of its own or is it a mix?
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I have wondered the same thing. I am not sure that I have found the correct answer, but here is what I've found.

This trout is from the upper Columbia and Fraser Rivers of British Columbia. It was first classified in 1992 as Oncorbynchus Kamloops under the mistaken belief it represented a landlocked species of Pacific salmon. It is now known as Salmo Gairdneri which also includes Steelhead and Redband trout of the upper Columbia.


The Kamloop is a strain originating in British Columbia, and is known for its quicker growth rates compared to the native rainbow. The male trout is brightly colored, with a red gill plate and stripe along its side. The female has a silver coloring and is usually larger than the equivalent age male.

Kamloop Rainbow trout: These multicolored warriors were transplanted from the Kamloop Lakes in Canada to the Connetquot in 1979 and true to the breed have become a true ocean run steelhead. 10,000 return to the river each spring as sliver sided, hard fighting steelhead.

I am looking for the levels for pH, disolved oxygen, alkalinity, hardness, CO2, Amonium nitrate, and nitrate oxygen for Kamloop Rainbow Trout.

General tolerance ranges to these specific water quality parameters for Salmonid species are as follows. Please note that these are the upper limits for continuous exposure.

pH 6.5-8.0
DO 5.0ppm-saturation
alkalinity(CaCO3) 10-400ppm
hardness 10-400ppm
CO2 0-10ppm
Total Ammonia(TAN) <1.0ppm
Nitrite .1ppm/soft H2O .2ppm/hard H2O
Nitrate <3.0ppm


For whatever it's worth, there is what I have. Hope it helps.
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Curtisfish is right and these fish get really big and a bright red during a certain time of the year. One of the guys on the site caught some years ago in Idaho, if I can find a picture of the ones he caught I'll post it. WH2
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The famous huge rainbow trout of lake Pend Orielle in Northern Idaho are Kamloops rainbows. They do have impressive growth rates and are more piscivorous than regular bows.
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i found this article on them in utah: [url "http://digstream.go.com/outdoors/fishing/s/f_map_UT_Mantua_Reservoir.html"]http://digstream.go.com/outdoors/fishing/s/f_map_UT_Mantua_Reservoir.html[/url]
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Here are a couple 20+ pound kamloops...

Oooh yea, thats what I was looking for, I know Dennis posted them a year ago or more but I couldn't find them. Did you find them in an old post or did you change your user name?
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The big rainbows that came out of the Gorge years ago were kamloops, according to Tom Pettengill. Mantua was stocked several years back with them too for, I believe, brood stock. But all scientific mumbo jumbo aside, kamloops are a rainbow variant that are in specific northern lakes, usually big water lakes.

Attached are a couple more pics of a big female and a smaller male.

Thanks for the extra info on the Kamloops, those are some great looking fish. It was good to finally get out with you and do some fishing yesterday. WH2
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