Ontario-Great Lakes Area Fact Sheets

Lake Trout

General Description

The lake trout is a member of the salmon family of fishes and has the following characteristics:

• an elongate, trout-like body with a stout head;
• a large mouth and a snout which usually protrudes over the lower jaw when the mouth is closed;
  
• the overall body colour, including the head, dorsal, adipose and caudal fins, consists of white or yellowish spots on a dark green to grayish background;
  
• the underside is white; and
• sometimes the paired fins are an orange-red colour, especially in northern populations.

Distribution

The lake trout is native to northern North America. In Canada, it is found in the Maritime Provinces and Labrador through to northern British Columbia. It is widely distributed in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and many arctic islands.

Habitat and Life History

The preferred habitat is large, deep, cold-water lakes, although in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut it is also found in shallow tundra lakes and large, deep rivers. Lake trout spawn in the fall but the time varies among lakes and depends on such factors as latitude, weather, and the size and topography of the lake. Spawning most often occurs over a large boulder or rubble lake bottom at depths of less than 12 metres (40 feet) and sometimes as shallow as 30 cm (1 foot) for inland lakes, and at depths less than 360 metres (120 feet) in the Great Lakes. Spawning takes place at night during which the eggs are scattered over the rocky bottom. The eggs remain among the rocks for weeks and hatch the following spring.

Within a month or so after hatching, the young lake trout usually seek deeper water and are thought to be reclusive, plankton feeders during their first few years of life.

Food Habits

The diet of lake trout varies with the age and size of the fish, locality and the food available. Adult lake trout are predaceous and feed upon a broad range of organisms, including zooplankton, insect larvae, small crustaceans, clams, snails, leeches, mice, shrews, and even occasional birds. When available, lake trout feed extensively on other fish such as whitefish, grayling, sticklebacks and sculpins.

Economic Importance

The lake trout is highly prized both as a game fish and as a commercial species. Today, the largest commercial production comes from the lakes of northern Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, since the famous commercial lake trout fisheries of the Great Lakes have been decimated by the sea lamprey and by pollution.

Lake trout is an excellent food fish, eagerly sought by commercial, sport and subsistence fishermen and marketed mainly fresh or frozen.

Fishing Facts

Lake trout are the largest representatives of a group of fish known as char and are closely related to Dolly Varden, brook trout and arctic char.

The lake trout has been hybridized with the brook trout to produce a fertile hybrid called a “wendigo” or “splake”.

Further Information

For further information, please contact your local DFO office: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans-habitat/habitat/aboutus-apropos/regions/arctic-arctique_e.asp?#1