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🎣 Brown trout
The UK's native trout species, found both as wild river and loch fish and as stocked fish in put-and-take fisheries, with wild specimens showing markedly more variation in colour and marking than farmed stock.
Identification
Golden-brown flanks scattered with dark spots (often ringed with pale halos) and occasional red spots. Colouring varies significantly by water, wild river fish tend to be more heavily spotted and darker than stocked, farm-reared fish.
UK habitat
Native throughout the UK in rivers, streams and lochs, with wild populations especially strong in Scotland, Wales and the West Country. Also widely stocked into reservoirs and put-and-take fisheries where put-and-take angling is popular.