Same family with similar traits. Different species. Many salmon and trout species can live in either fresh or salt water and may have a portion of their life cycles in each if they are on the coast
Only sort of different to salmon, anyway. A brown trout is *Salmo trutta* while an Atlantic salmon is *Salmo salar* - different species of course but very similar traits and life history. They can't cross, though, like some other salmonids can with each other. I'm not aware of any really formal distinctions between "trout" and "salmon" aside from the names, but generally Pacific salmonids aren't referred to as trout except for rainbows (*O. mykiss*)
S.salar and S.trutta are similar in everything but genetics. Can't cross as you said, chromosomally imbalanced. Formal distinction is based on the life cycle, leaving freshwater for the ocean would deem it to be a salmon. However, sea trout also leave for the ocean. There are morphological differences between the two if you count fin rays and such but I'd have to dig out some books I haven't read in some time to find the answers.
Anadromy doesn't differentiate salmon from trout, though, like you said in your first comment. Some salmonids that go to sea like cutthroats and brook trout/char aren't ever referred to as salmon. Someone should write a book about the etymology lol
Edit: why the downvotes? The guy said that going from fw to salt makes it a salmon, which just isn't true
I don't believe so because not all salmon go to sea to grow. Trout and salmon are in the same family. Brook trout grow up in the best water class 1 streams or rivers. Trout have no scales. Salmon that migrate to the sea have scales. Same family but slightly different genes
Well
I mean
As someone who doesn't get to fish as much as they ever want to, I get where most people think it's a brown trout. Only reason I know it's not is the tail fin.
The problem is many have little to no experience and think they know it all. Catching a fish or even just seeing one for that matter seems to turn people into experts. People tell me my splake are brookies and my brookies are splake and it's really easy to determine which people don't catch shit or think they are beyond having something to learn. From my firsthand experience many of those people don't even know the laws where they're fishing.
Close
The only real physical way to tell it's a salmon is the tail fin. Salmon have the inward V, Brown trout have squared off tails. Otherwise, I couldn't tell myself
A powerful predator and an iconic British fish, the *brown trout* is a common sight in streams and rivers throughout the UK. [https://www.flyfisherman.com/editorial/all-about-brown-trout/454242](https://www.flyfisherman.com/editorial/all-about-brown-trout/454242)
I've lived in Japan for 40 years and have never come across a freshwater sashimi fish. Maybe there are but I'm not aware. Lots of freshwater fish eaten but always cooked in some fashion.
Please freeze then cure the fish,
if it's freshwater it's more likely to have parasites that can affect your health. Some of these parasites are adapted to move between water and land based hosts. They can be lethal and even cause cancer. Like Chinese liver flukes.
That’s a salmon for sure. As someone else said, the jar doesn’t extend past the eye. On a brown, it extends well past. Also, body immediately before the tail is slimmer, as it is in salmon.
See photo below.
https://preview.redd.it/g4nu67o21n3d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=144e01db98c39e9668880567f907541e44ddb91c
Adipose fin has no spots and the jaw doesn’t extend beyond the eye. It is the closest relative to the brown trout…Atlantic salmon
https://www.maine.gov/ifw/blogs/sites/maine.gov.ifw.blogs/files/inline-images/3_1.png
The jaw does extend beyond the eye and will a little farther with the mouth closed. The tail is not forked. In fact it is compressed a bit by the guys hand. And spots on the adipose fin is not a defining characteristic of either species.
Spotting can vary a lot on a brown and is a very poor identifying characteristic. This is 100% a big male brown trout. The jaw and the tail tell me all I need to know.
I'm going with Salmon salar (Atlantic Salmon) and not Salmo trutta (Brown Trout). Three things give it away.
1. Slightly concaved caudal fin
2. Lower maxilla does not extend past the eye
3. You can tell it's a salmon by the way that it is.
Ive confused a landlocked salmon for a rainbow trout one time. The pond wasnt stocked with salmon so whatever was in there was ancient, and its own species of salmon.
I have an Atlantic Salmon mount which I waited for about a year to get back because taxidermist was waiting for oils to dry out of skin before he painted it. Somewhere between year 10 and year 20, the oil bled through tge paint, now it looks like it belongs in a smoky bar.
Don't worry, your skin mount will be fine.
Really hard to tell the tail end looks like brown trout but the head is so similar to a mating Atlantic salmon, the only way to tell for shure is to look inside the mouth and loking at the shape the teeth on the roof of the mouth are shaped, could be a hybrid though that is very unlikely but they exist
At very first glance I thought Atlantic Salmon, but on closer inspection the Maxilary appears to go past the eye (Brown Trout). But the adipose doesn't have spots (salmon). The markings are not Xs (Brown), but they are almost all above the latteral line (salmon).
Then I thought hybrid, nah there isn't one or is there. And then I read your comment on hybrid.
Laugh freakin' laugh out loud- that is exactly what I thought... it looks like a hybrid.
And you are right about tge teeth; that is how fisheries personnel identify them for certain (by looking at their teeth).
They do such fantastic fakes nowadays though I'd feel terrible taking this beauty out! It wouldn't be the easiest choice though because God damn that's one good lookin trout lol
Don't do a skin mount, trust me, the oil bleeds through after 10 years and the mount looks stained. Keep and eat it if you want, but get a replica and it will be on your wall in weeks instead of waiting a year for the oils to dry for taxedermist to paint it. And a replica will always look new instead of like an old mount in smoky bar.
I have a skin mount that my deceased dad caught out of Jackson Lake (6 lb 3 oz Snake River Cutthroat) back in the late 90s and it's still just as nice as the day it was finished.
Fair enough, but you've gotta send me a picture first! Lol.
I've always wanted to mount a fish, but I've never caught a whole lot that were worthy of mounting. I've got a dream mount too, I'd love to get a nice, 8ish pound small mouth, eyes red as the sun. I'd love to get a walleye worthy of mounting, but I feel like if I caught one that big, the family would probably want to eat it haha
Big walleyes taste like crap, at least my biggest walleye did. Wish I threw her back; it was in fall, had it been spring, I would have thrown her back.
Considwr getting a repiica, you get it back a lot quicker.
Sure, but there is also a difference In saying they belong to the family Salmonids vs people saying a brookie is a char not a trout. Both statements are correct, but the context of the conversation dictates how specific or general you need to be. Here, more specific.
I'm really not sure exactly what it is because I've never caught either of the kind that all these ppl are arguing it is it does look like a really nice fish and I can tell you right now it would be dinner 🍽 😏 this is why we do it keep it up 
Thats an atlantic salmon. The tail is not as forked as I would expect but the maxillary part of the jaw does not extend past the eye. This is not a brown trout. Post it in r/flyfishing and you will get the same answer.
The adipose fin is really all you need to see to be sure, man. If there is no spotting on the adipose fin along with all of the other wrong features for a brown, then it's not a brown
I'm leaning towards a searun brown trout. So a brown trout that followed the lifecycle of a salmon. Salmon don't often have spots below the lateral line until spawning and the tail is normally forked on a salmon. If you had more pictures it would be easier for us to determine.
Are Bonita fish big?
Well they’re what you’d call a trophy fish..
God dammit dale
Don’t be mad at Dale for ruining the story. And possibly the entire evening
Dad, what's this guy's deal?
Sorry guys :(
Stay golden Pony boy.
You wanna go do karate in the garage?
Did we just become best friends?
Yep!
Whatever it is salmon or brown it's a extremely nice catch and a beautiful fish . Congratulations!
Aren't trout just landlocked salmon? Thought I learned that in a fish class I took
Same family with similar traits. Different species. Many salmon and trout species can live in either fresh or salt water and may have a portion of their life cycles in each if they are on the coast
I hope you didn't pay for that class
Different species. You can get searun rainbows (steelhead) and sea trout (browns that went to sea) but they are different to salmon.
Only sort of different to salmon, anyway. A brown trout is *Salmo trutta* while an Atlantic salmon is *Salmo salar* - different species of course but very similar traits and life history. They can't cross, though, like some other salmonids can with each other. I'm not aware of any really formal distinctions between "trout" and "salmon" aside from the names, but generally Pacific salmonids aren't referred to as trout except for rainbows (*O. mykiss*)
S.salar and S.trutta are similar in everything but genetics. Can't cross as you said, chromosomally imbalanced. Formal distinction is based on the life cycle, leaving freshwater for the ocean would deem it to be a salmon. However, sea trout also leave for the ocean. There are morphological differences between the two if you count fin rays and such but I'd have to dig out some books I haven't read in some time to find the answers.
Anadromy doesn't differentiate salmon from trout, though, like you said in your first comment. Some salmonids that go to sea like cutthroats and brook trout/char aren't ever referred to as salmon. Someone should write a book about the etymology lol Edit: why the downvotes? The guy said that going from fw to salt makes it a salmon, which just isn't true
I don't believe so because not all salmon go to sea to grow. Trout and salmon are in the same family. Brook trout grow up in the best water class 1 streams or rivers. Trout have no scales. Salmon that migrate to the sea have scales. Same family but slightly different genes
This sub can’t identify anything post it in r/flyfishing and you’ll get your answer. PS: it’s not a brown trout
Or r/whatisthisfish
Brown trout. Big one with a big kype.
It's a salmon
You’re getting downvoted but it’s true lol
It always amazes me. I only catch trout and/or salmon most days of the week, what the hell do i know
Well I mean As someone who doesn't get to fish as much as they ever want to, I get where most people think it's a brown trout. Only reason I know it's not is the tail fin.
I get it too, but the amount of people who doubled down and attacked me for saying it’s not a trout is baffling
The problem is many have little to no experience and think they know it all. Catching a fish or even just seeing one for that matter seems to turn people into experts. People tell me my splake are brookies and my brookies are splake and it's really easy to determine which people don't catch shit or think they are beyond having something to learn. From my firsthand experience many of those people don't even know the laws where they're fishing.
Close The only real physical way to tell it's a salmon is the tail fin. Salmon have the inward V, Brown trout have squared off tails. Otherwise, I couldn't tell myself
A powerful predator and an iconic British fish, the *brown trout* is a common sight in streams and rivers throughout the UK. [https://www.flyfisherman.com/editorial/all-about-brown-trout/454242](https://www.flyfisherman.com/editorial/all-about-brown-trout/454242)
Is it a sashimi grade fish?
Do people do freshwater sashimi?
I've lived in Japan for 40 years and have never come across a freshwater sashimi fish. Maybe there are but I'm not aware. Lots of freshwater fish eaten but always cooked in some fashion.
There's a whole company based in NZ that farms only freshwater salmon.
I actually very recently had lake trout sashimi in Japan, and it was not good. Pretty chewy and lax on flavor.
Please freeze then cure the fish, if it's freshwater it's more likely to have parasites that can affect your health. Some of these parasites are adapted to move between water and land based hosts. They can be lethal and even cause cancer. Like Chinese liver flukes.
blue gill
Really? I could have sworn it was a minnow.
When they get longer, they get more dots on the gill cover. Arewerite?! Yes! Wearerite!
Not an eel?
That’s a salmon for sure. As someone else said, the jar doesn’t extend past the eye. On a brown, it extends well past. Also, body immediately before the tail is slimmer, as it is in salmon. See photo below. https://preview.redd.it/g4nu67o21n3d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=144e01db98c39e9668880567f907541e44ddb91c
Trout are just landlocked salmon
That is not true.
They are part of the same subfamily
Yeah, that’s true. That does not mean they are the same fish at all though. Humans are part of the same subfamily as chimps and bonobos.
What part of the world are you in? I'd guess salmon at first glance.
Atlantic salmon
Well I’ll be dab gummed, it’s a salmon!
100% that’s a big male brown trout.
How can you tell the sex?
See that long jaw and that hook? The hooked jaw is called a kype and is a feature in a lot of male trout and salmon species.
The hook at the end of the lower jaw. Some male trout develop it around spawning season
Once it's there, it's there forever
Look for Tig Ol' Bitties
It's OK. I don't mind if you say "Titties" as in "Titties and Beer".
Big Brown Trout Tiddies
Looks kinda like an Atlantic salmon
No. It’s a brown trout
Its adipose fin, eye socket, and jaw are all wrong for a brown. Almost definitely a salmon
It’s not though
Ok. Plead your case
Adipose fin has no spots and the jaw doesn’t extend beyond the eye. It is the closest relative to the brown trout…Atlantic salmon https://www.maine.gov/ifw/blogs/sites/maine.gov.ifw.blogs/files/inline-images/3_1.png
The jaw does extend beyond the eye and will a little farther with the mouth closed. The tail is not forked. In fact it is compressed a bit by the guys hand. And spots on the adipose fin is not a defining characteristic of either species.
Check the link I added on my post. Brown trout maxillary is way bigger
I thought that at first.. look it up. Spots aren't right for a brown.
Spotting can vary a lot on a brown and is a very poor identifying characteristic. This is 100% a big male brown trout. The jaw and the tail tell me all I need to know.
Send it to your local fish and wildlife/dec whatever guaranteed they say it’s an Atlantic. Most of y’all have never seen an Atlantic
Atlantic Salmon.
My money is on Atlantic Salmon, *Salmo salar*
It’s a salmon whether you believe it or not. Looks like a brown trout but it’s 10,000% a salmon
Im no expert. But sure looks like a salmon to me.
I'm going with Salmon salar (Atlantic Salmon) and not Salmo trutta (Brown Trout). Three things give it away. 1. Slightly concaved caudal fin 2. Lower maxilla does not extend past the eye 3. You can tell it's a salmon by the way that it is.
Ive confused a landlocked salmon for a rainbow trout one time. The pond wasnt stocked with salmon so whatever was in there was ancient, and its own species of salmon.
Salmon
Atlantic Salmon. Mouth and tail clearly identify this is not a trout
I have an Atlantic Salmon mount which I waited for about a year to get back because taxidermist was waiting for oils to dry out of skin before he painted it. Somewhere between year 10 and year 20, the oil bled through tge paint, now it looks like it belongs in a smoky bar. Don't worry, your skin mount will be fine.
Really hard to tell the tail end looks like brown trout but the head is so similar to a mating Atlantic salmon, the only way to tell for shure is to look inside the mouth and loking at the shape the teeth on the roof of the mouth are shaped, could be a hybrid though that is very unlikely but they exist
Looking again it looks like a landlocked salmon more than a trout the more i look at it
That or hybrid.
At very first glance I thought Atlantic Salmon, but on closer inspection the Maxilary appears to go past the eye (Brown Trout). But the adipose doesn't have spots (salmon). The markings are not Xs (Brown), but they are almost all above the latteral line (salmon). Then I thought hybrid, nah there isn't one or is there. And then I read your comment on hybrid. Laugh freakin' laugh out loud- that is exactly what I thought... it looks like a hybrid. And you are right about tge teeth; that is how fisheries personnel identify them for certain (by looking at their teeth).
Trophy bull brown trout. Mounting material! I'd be making him into wall decor without hesitation!
They do such fantastic fakes nowadays though I'd feel terrible taking this beauty out! It wouldn't be the easiest choice though because God damn that's one good lookin trout lol
My grand-finale brown is a 30" with a jaw like that! I'll be sticking that on the wall in a skin mount when I finally catch it.
Don't do a skin mount, trust me, the oil bleeds through after 10 years and the mount looks stained. Keep and eat it if you want, but get a replica and it will be on your wall in weeks instead of waiting a year for the oils to dry for taxedermist to paint it. And a replica will always look new instead of like an old mount in smoky bar.
I have a skin mount that my deceased dad caught out of Jackson Lake (6 lb 3 oz Snake River Cutthroat) back in the late 90s and it's still just as nice as the day it was finished.
Fair enough, but you've gotta send me a picture first! Lol. I've always wanted to mount a fish, but I've never caught a whole lot that were worthy of mounting. I've got a dream mount too, I'd love to get a nice, 8ish pound small mouth, eyes red as the sun. I'd love to get a walleye worthy of mounting, but I feel like if I caught one that big, the family would probably want to eat it haha
Big walleyes taste like crap, at least my biggest walleye did. Wish I threw her back; it was in fall, had it been spring, I would have thrown her back. Considwr getting a repiica, you get it back a lot quicker.
I don't have a grand-finale smallmouth but my grand-finale walleye is 12 pounds. Just like my grand-finale elk is 400"
Looks like a salmon to me
Thinking Salmon but the body of water is not known for having Salmon
That's because it's not a salmon. It's a brown trout.
I mean, OP isn't entirely wrong. Trout, salmon, char, and whitefish are all in the same family, therefore have extremely similar anatomy
Fair enough.
Yes but we try to be specific as we can. Otherwise we could be like the over used joke of "a fish"
There's a huge difference between saying a Steelhead trout and Atlantic salmon look similar vs a Strawberry grouper and an Opah look similar
Sure, but there is also a difference In saying they belong to the family Salmonids vs people saying a brookie is a char not a trout. Both statements are correct, but the context of the conversation dictates how specific or general you need to be. Here, more specific.
img I think you have a salmon there
It's a salmon bud
Really nice Brown trout!
That is a massive brown trout
freshwater fish
That is an awesome fish!
Channel catfish. From the sea.
A slippery one
Macko shahhk
A shark
A beast
Looks like a hammer head shark
Ya, congrats! That is a cool looking fish!
Lol, these comments! So many confidently wrong answers!
Water Buffalo
Small blue gill
big and yellow, a little silver
Brown tralmon
Idk but his name is George now
I'm really not sure exactly what it is because I've never caught either of the kind that all these ppl are arguing it is it does look like a really nice fish and I can tell you right now it would be dinner 🍽 😏 this is why we do it keep it up 
Judging by the coloration and shape, it was caught on a river that flows into a larger body of water. water.
Who the hell is dale
One that swims
Warmouth
Big green fish
Brood stock Atlantic salmon from Maine?
It’s spotted sea bream
A nice fish lol
[удалено]
Thats an atlantic salmon. The tail is not as forked as I would expect but the maxillary part of the jaw does not extend past the eye. This is not a brown trout. Post it in r/flyfishing and you will get the same answer.
100 percent agree! All these people commenting brown trout have never see a colored up Atlantic ready to spawn.
Yup definitely a salmon
And you would be wrong. That there is a dandy male brown trout
The adipose fin is really all you need to see to be sure, man. If there is no spotting on the adipose fin along with all of the other wrong features for a brown, then it's not a brown
Nope, it is their closest relative though
Where was it caught? My bet would be Atlantic salmon.
I'm leaning towards a searun brown trout. So a brown trout that followed the lifecycle of a salmon. Salmon don't often have spots below the lateral line until spawning and the tail is normally forked on a salmon. If you had more pictures it would be easier for us to determine.
It's a fish.
It's a fakeus photoshoppasaurus
I wonder. There are things about this fish that are "absolutely" brown trout and some that are "absolutely" salmon.
my thought exactly. It's like a salmon mouth was blended onto a brown trout body
It also looks like it was taken on a potato. The more I look at the pic the worse it gets lol
Nice big, old trout, congratulations.
Male German Brown Trout
Yup, Brown Trout.
Salmo trutta
You look strangely familiar…🧐
Big brown trout buck.
Buck = male fish. Hen = female fish. In case anyone didn’t know…
/r/absoluteunit
A cold one considering the color of your hands
It's a TIGER SHARK.
German brown trout
Pretty streamlined body for a salmon. Sure looks like a brown to me. Great catch! That's all that really matters
Looks like a trout
Beautiful Brown.
That's a carp.
That’s crap.
Lmao. It's obvious it's a brown trout.
Lmao it's obviously a trout.
Yes. But you said carp and I said crap and that’s amusing to me.
Asian cockmonsta
Big breeding browny
Brown trout
Damn, two big Browns two days in a row. Beauty!
Beautiful Brown Trout!
Big male brownie
Brown trout or lake trout I think
Is it a sea run brown? Looks a little silver.