LAKE TROUT, two salmonoid fishes of the genus Cristivomer inhabiting lakes in the northern United States and southern Canada, (1) the Great Lake trout (C. notnaycush ); and (2) the siscowet (C. siscowet). The former, and more important, occurs in most of the larger lakes and ponds from New Brunswick to Idaho and Vancouver Island, and throughout northern Canada and Alaska. The Canadians call it namaycush and by other Indian names; in Maine and Vermont it is known as utogue° and alonge° respectively; and on the upper Great Lakes as Mackinaw trout. It is the largest of the trout family, sometimes exceed ing 100 pounds in weight, but the average speci men weighs from 15 to 20 pounds; the biggest fish are found in the largest and deepest lakes. It is trout-like in form, thin-skinned, with little or no underlying fatty tissue, and dark gray spotted with round paler spots sometimes of a slightly reddish tinge. It is fierce and voracious, seizing and feeding upon °all fishes with soft fins° and anything else edible that falls in its way; and when mature it can hold its own against any other depredator, so that it may be regarded as ruler of the lakes. It spawns on the reefs in the late autumn, but otherwise dwells in the deeper waters; Jordan says that the usual number of eggs deposited at one spawning is only 5,000 or 6,000. As a game
fish it seems variable, in some waters affording good sport by trolling with a spoon-bait or live minnow, and in others having small repute among anglers. All agree, however, as to the excellence of its flesh on the table; and it fur nishes a commercial fishery on the. Great Lakes only excelled in importance by that for white fish. These trout are usually caught by vast gill-nets operated by steam vessels, and three or four tons are sometimes taken in a single haul. About 1885 the supply in the Great Lakes was diminished to an alarming extent ; but arti ficial propagation by the State and national governments soon restored the quantity, so that at the beginning of the present century more could be taken by fishermen than could profit ably be sold. It is outranked in market-price and demand, however, by the whitefish.
The siscowet is very similar, but has a deeper body, thicker skin, beneath which is an excessive development of fatty tissue and paler coloration. It is rarely seen outside of Lake Superior, where it is numerous in deep water. (See SALMON; TROUT), and consult works there cited. Consult also Goode, 'American Fishes) (1888); Jordan and Evermann, 'American Food and Game Fishes) (1902); Sage and Cheney, 'Salmon Trout) (1902).