Great Basin Redband Trout
These redbands of the northern Great Basin pose an interesting puzzle for taxonomists. Multiple invasions by ancestral Oncorhynchus mykiss combined with various changes in the geomorphology of the region make them very difficult to classify cleanly.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Behnke (2002) both divide the redband trout of the northern Great Basin into six populations: Fort Rock basin, Harney-Malheur basin, Catlow basin, Warner Lakes basin, Goose Lake basin, Chewaucan basin, and the Upper Klamath Lake Basin. Trying to catch every one of those is enough to provide quite trip on its own.
Trying to definitively identify a northern Great Basin redband is not an easy task. The redbands from the region are from a varied stock and have diverse characteristics.
In general, look for the solid red lateral line, profuse spotting, and a slightly more intense background hue of green, yellow, and gold than you might expect in a rainbow. You can often see a white strip on the very tip of the dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins. The residents of small streams often retain their parr marks throughout their life. The coloration, though, may be very subdued in lake-dwelling forms like those from Goose Lake.
Heavy stocking of hatchery rainbows and relatively few barrier falls means your chances of finding a pure version of one of these fish are pretty slim. Most are likely hybrids, to some degree. However, the Great Basin can be a harsh place to live, and since these redbands spent tens of thousands of years adapting to it before the stocking began, they've hung on better than you might expect. According to Behnke (2002), redbands in the headwaters of Bridge and Buck Creek in the Fort Rock Basin show very little evidence of hybridization. The same probably goes for other creeks in the area.
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Oncorhynchus mykiss
Oncorhynchus mykiss newberii
