# Difference between dollies and brookies



## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

Oops...didn't realize I entered this as a "new topic".....meant to put it in another thread where someone asked how to tell dollies and brookies apart.....

I have spent a great deal of time studying North American salmonid taxonomy just because there is some morbid fascination with it deep inside me. Trouts are relatively easy to tell apart&#8230;.but some of the charrs get extremely difficult&#8230;.fisheries biologists don't even agree completely, especially where arctic charr are concerned. The problem with being able to distinguish fish with similar color patterns is that too much of the time you see pictures of fish in standard coloration or the extremes found in spawning coloration. So many times there are intermediate levels of coloration which make identification confusing. I grew up catching bull trout and brook trout in Montana and remember having a very difficult time for years telling the two apart. But for the last 3 decades I can't seem to understand why people can't tell which is which.

Bull trout and dolly varden (and for that fact arctic charr) are very similar in coloration&#8230;.my bull trout of Montana were considered to be dolly varden until 1984 when they were reclassified as bull trout as a result of genetics research. In their native distribution there was no confusion because brookies were only found in the northeastern states of the US and provinces of Canada. DV and BT are only found in the west. But brookies have been extensively stocked in the west and so the confusion begins. DV are actually found only on the west coast and generally not to far inland from Washington up to Alaska and across the Bering Sea of northern Canada. There are not too many areas where the two species overlap&#8230;..but there is a great deal of overlap with the bull trout as they extend into Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana in the US.

Telling dollies or bulls from brookies is actually relatively easy. Dollies and bulls have white spotting which extends up over their back BUT not onto their dorsal fins, which are unmarked. Their spots are orange to pink in color. Brookies have white spotting but as it extends to their back it forms wavy lines call vermiculations and this extends onto the dorsal fin. Their spots are red with a light blue halo around them. Generally bulls and dollies have a much lighter background color under the spots then brookies&#8230;but this can change with spawning coloration. Really the only time their should be real confusion to the difference of which is which is when dealing with bull trout/brook trout hybrids. These hybrids are never wanted and biologists would love everyone of them caught to be culled out of the population BUT too few people know the differences to be able to identify the hybrids from natural bull trout.

Some pictures:

Alaskan dolly varden&#8230;.the first are spring fish I just caught&#8230;.not much coloration as they are fall spawners:



















The rest are all dollies caught between Aug and October (they usually spawn here in October)&#8230;bucks are generally brighter colored then hens:


















































































Despite the great variation in color what did you notice about all the dorsal fins, when you could see them? No markings whatsoever. Also you never see red spotting&#8230;intense pink, orange, magenta&#8230;.but no red and no halos around the colored spots.

Here's some bull trout, brookies, and bullXbrook trout hybrids all from the Swan River in Montana &#8230;. some of the pictures are quite old and the resolution sucks&#8230;sorry&#8230;














































Again&#8230;with bull trout no dorsal fin marks&#8230;.only white spots or no spots on the back. These last few are a brookie with hybrids&#8230;.these are tough to tell apart sometimes...the top one is a hybrid and the bottom is a pure brookie:



















These last two are off the largest hybrid I have caught:



















Again&#8230;the hybrids have distinctive spotting or vermiculations on their dorsal fin&#8230;..brookies pelvic and anal fins are also colored white, black and red&#8230;..bulls are almost never have any black on the fin.

Hopefully this helps&#8230;I usually provide too much info&#8230;.sorry.

Brian


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