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+--- Thread: trout meat color? (/showthread.php?tid=962837)
trout meat color? - wagdog - 01-21-2016
As I posted a little while back, I hit Fish Lake twice in a week. Both times I took home a few splake for the smoker. The first day I was there, I got a splake that was close to 18 inches long and a couple that were shorter but healthy enough for the smoker. Saturday was the same story. I got another splake around 16.5 inches. I noticed all the splake I cleaned had bright orange meat with one exception. The biggest splake I had from Wednesday had white meat. It also had some black around the mouth and eyes which made me think it was starting to sport some spawning colors. Given that splake are a hybrid, I'm assuming they have a false spawn.
Regardless, not sure why this one (which was bigger and most likely had been in the lake longer) had white meat while the smaller ones had that bright orange flesh that we all like. Based on the many conversations I have had with some of y'all over the years, I learned why larger rainbows in DC and Starvation have that bright red meat and why it is desirable. The only time I have seen trout with white meat is from a rainbow that was recently stocked and had been eating fish pellets (yuck). Any ideas?
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Re: [wagdog] trout meat color? - davefishman - 01-21-2016
I have noticed the same thing on Strawberry with the cutthroat. The cutts under the slot are usually orange and the ones over the slot are whiter. I am guessing, but I think fish that primarily feed on other fish have white meat while those that feed on insects and shrimp have a more red (or orange) meat.
I know that people who raise atlantic salmon feed them shrimp meal just before they harvest them because the shrimp turns their flesh a "salmon" color.
On other reservoirs I have also noticed that some skinny fish have more white meat while a fish that is fatter usually has more red meat. That may just be a coincidence.
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Re: [davefishman] trout meat color? - ducksfresh - 01-22-2016
I think your right in saying that fish that eat bugs have the red/orange colored meat and the fish that eat other fish have white meat.
The only exception is when they are building eggs getting ready to spawn. At that time the protein leaves the meat and goes to the eggs/sperm which leave the meat white and gross.
My 2 cents.
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Re: [ducksfresh] trout meat color? - 4pointmuley - 01-22-2016
I always thought if the meat is a red/orange color. It meant that the fish has been in the reservoir a long time.
I found this on the internet.
It does have a lot to do with their diet.
Wild rainbow trout that eat scuds (freshwater shrimp), insects such as flies, and crayfish are the most appealing. Dark red/orange meat indicates it is either an anadromous steelhead or a farmed rainbow trout given a supplemental diet with a high astaxanthin content. The resulting pink flesh is marketed under monikers such as Ruby Red or Carolina Red.
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Re: [ducksfresh] trout meat color? - El_Matador - 01-22-2016
Here's my take: Fish that feed on crustaceans or other fish have the bright orange meat, and insect eaters get the blah color. Most rainbows are insect eaters and are not the best eating. At Strawberry, Otter Creek, East Canyon, and other places the rainbows will eat crawdads and become nice and orange. The Boulder Mtn lakes are full of shrimp and all the fish are orange. Tigers, brookies, splake, browns, and cutts are almost always orange meat since they feed primarily on other fish and crustaceans.
Sterile fish definitely false spawn and that may explain the strange color of the larger splake.
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Re: [4pointmuley] trout meat color? - wagdog - 01-22-2016
Yeah I never understood why the color of the meat varied until several years ago. Found out more about the forage in reservoirs like DC, realized what a difference it made as far as flavor, etc. I don't know much about splake other than they are a cross between a brookie and a laker and feed pretty actively in winter. I was thinking maybe this one had gotten big enough to be almost exclusively piscivorous which impacted the meat color. Either that or maybe spawning (false or otherwise) had something to do with it. I appreciate the replies. Thanks for humoring the fish nerd in me.
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Re: [wagdog] trout meat color? - TT600 - 01-22-2016
When I catch a brown or tiger or cutt in a lake and it is nice and silvery I know the meat will be good. Same does not go for a rainbow. To me browns and tigers caught in the spring taste best. I have been in lakes in the fall where some tigers or browns are spawning and some are not. Not sure why this is. Easy to tell by looking at them.
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Re: [wagdog] trout meat color? - Saltslam - 01-22-2016
Are you sure it was a splake and not a pup mac? The mac's we have taken home from fish lake have always had white meat and the splake orange. That being said, the splake from Navajo have lighter colored meat also, and they are dining on chubs...
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Re: [wagdog] trout meat color? - doggonefishin - 01-22-2016
The red meat color of trout is dependent on the ingestion of compounds called carotenoids. Zooplankton are a rich source of carotenoids. Fish lake splake eat a lot of zooplankton. This is also why Kokanee salmon, which eat almost exclusively zooplankton, have the brilliant red meat that is highly prized. Scuds are also a rich source of carotenoids. This is why scud fed brookies from the Boulders have some of the reddest (and tastiest) meat you will find.
Besides making the meat red, these pigments are used as part of trout coloration. When trout spawn, their external colors usually become much brighter, especially in the males. This tends to cause the meat to become paler, and combined with the physiological stress of spawning, turns the meat mushy and poor tasting. Even in sterile hybrids like tigers and splake, the false spawn will cause the meat to be different. Huntington reservoir is full of scuds and produces some of the reddest meated tiger trout you will find. The pale colored tigers, usually females, are especially bright red and as delicious as any trout in the state. However, compare a pale colored tiger to one that is in its brilliant spawning colors. You will find the colorful skinned one will have more pale, yellow meat, compared to the "silver bullet" tiger. I too have caught a couple of splake from Fish Lake that were paler than usual and these invariably were darker colored "spawning color" splake.
A couple more related observations.
1. Places like Deer Creek and Starvation have a lot of zooplankton for trout to feed on and actually produce delicious tasting trout. However, it takes time for the fish to ingest enough carotenoids to make the meat red. A recently planted trout out of there will still have white, mediocre tasting meat, a fish that has been in there for several months, or a longer holdover, will be bright red.
2. This fall, I kept a 25 inch cutt out of Strawberry. To my surprise, this fish had bright red meat and provided 3 delicious meals. It shows that for cutthroat and rainbow trout, (not most warmwater species) even the bigger fish still depend on zooplankton (and crayfish, another carotenoid producer) for a lot of its diet. Studies by the DWR at the Berry have confirmed this. I would suspect that many pale meated slot busters were caught in proximity to the spawn and were washed out from that.
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Re: [doggonefishin] trout meat color? - Therapist - 01-22-2016
While growing up, we would visit my Grand Parents in Milford, Ut. Every now and then, one of my Grandfathers client's would give him trout out of Minersville Res. Back then ( 60's and 70's) the fish out of Minersville were like footballs, with dark orange flesh, almost like salmon. It was quite a treat to have my Grandmother fry a Minersville trout for breakfast. I later learned that the fish fed on Scuds primarily and that is waht gave them the orange color.
Re: [Saltslam] trout meat color? - wagdog - 01-22-2016
Man I was thinking the same thing but I'm fairly certain it was a splake. When I started cleaning it and noticed the meat color, I stopped and double-checked some of the splake photos online. It didn't have a deeply forked tail and the fins all had the orange, black,and white like a brookie.
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Re: [doggonefishin] trout meat color? - wagdog - 01-22-2016
[quote doggonefishin]
Besides making the meat red, these pigments are used as part of trout coloration. When trout spawn, their external colors usually become much brighter, especially in the males. This tends to cause the meat to become paler, and combined with the physiological stress of spawning, turns the meat mushy and poor tasting. Even in sterile hybrids like tigers and splake, the false spawn will cause the meat to be different. Huntington reservoir is full of scuds and produces some of the reddest meated tiger trout you will find. The pale colored tigers, usually females, are especially bright red and as delicious as any trout in the state. However, compare a pale colored tiger to one that is in its brilliant spawning colors. You will find the colorful skinned one will have more pale, yellow meat, compared to the "silver bullet" tiger. I too have caught a couple of splake from Fish Lake that were paler than usual and these invariably were darker colored "spawning color" splake.
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Ok now this is very interesting to me. I knew about the meat color being affected by carotenoids from zooplankton and crustaceans. I didn't realize they impacted the external coloration as well. What you are saying makes sense though and I really appreciate the info!
[quote doggonefishin]
A couple more related observations.
1. Places like Deer Creek and Starvation have a lot of zooplankton for trout to feed on and actually produce delicious tasting trout. However, it takes time for the fish to ingest enough carotenoids to make the meat red. A recently planted trout out of there will still have white, mediocre tasting meat, a fish that has been in there for several months, or a longer holdover, will be bright red.
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Yes this has been my observation as well. A few years ago I caught and kept a limit of DC trout that ranged from a more recent stocker to some nice healthy footballs who had been in the reservoir for a while. The meat color ranged from white (the newly stocked fish) to pink to bright, bright red. That's when I started reading about meat color/quality in trout based on food sources.
[quote doggonefishin]
2. This fall, I kept a 25 inch cutt out of Strawberry. To my surprise, this fish had bright red meat and provided 3 delicious meals. It shows that for cutthroat and rainbow trout, (not most warmwater species) even the bigger fish still depend on zooplankton (and crayfish, another carotenoid producer) for a lot of its diet. Studies by the DWR at the Berry have confirmed this. I would suspect that many pale meated slot busters were caught in proximity to the spawn and were washed out from that.[/quote]
Now that is really cool. I would have thought they would be focused on larger prey at that size. Maybe this is an aspect that comes from the whole optimal forage theory. If zooplankton was plentiful and a larger fish didn't have to expend much energy to "load his wagon", it makes sense they would feast on the easily accessed zooplankton, crawdads, and any other readily available forage. Thanks again for the info especially on how spawning impacts trout.
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