Just last week, I went to the world class Bow River to do some fishing, and all I caught were mainly trout. The vast majority of the fish were 10-12 rainbows and brook trout fingerlings. However, in a small section of the river near lake louise I caught two unique fish that I really couldn't identify. Both were caught in about 4-5 feet depth in pools in an shallow stretch of the river. Could anybody help identify the two for me? Additionally, how do they survive in small  pools in a really shallow stretch of the water where the water is only 40 degrees farenheit and near freezing?

Cut throat and laker/char?

I'm going with cutthroat and splake

 

No such thing as too cold for trout 

First one is a cutthroat, maybe a cutbow. Second is probably a Splake.

As others have said, trout like this are coldwater fish... You'll find them all the way up into the northern reaches of Canada as long as there's moving water that's not frozen solid.

If you're nerdy, here's an ok article on trout habitat (specific to Rainbows in this case) from the Fish and Wildlife peep at Uncle Sam.

https://www.fws.gov/northeast/wssnfh/pdfs/rainbow1.pdf

Edited September 6, 20169 yr by HeavyDluxe
Write gooder and speel better

After closer inspection i would certainly say those are

1. Cutbow Trout (Cutthroat x Rainbow)

2. Splake (Lake x Brook)

14 hours ago, LiftedSquare13 said:

After closer inspection i would certainly say those are

1. Cutbow Trout (Cutthroat x Rainbow)

2. Splake (Lake x Brook)

Definitely doesn't look like a cut bow to me

10 hours ago, everythingthatswims said:

Definitely doesn't look like a cut bow to me

Yeah it could be pure cutthroat, i've only caught one trout in my life so i can't say i'm an expert on them, but i still love multi species fishing and try to be as of much help as i can be on these "ID" posts. The body looks very much like a rainbow imo, with the spots on the back, not to mention the fins look like a rainbow to me as well. Cutthroats i see seem to have a different body to them, if that makes any sense.