Question of the Month

The question of the month comes from my self. While cleaning fish at the cleaning station in Kewaunee last year, several guys were discussing the color of the flesh of the fish that were being cleaned. One person suggested that the color indicated the strain of fish. Common strains in Lake Michigan for Rainbows are Kamloops, Skamainia, and Chambers Creek.

I doubted this, so I called a D.N.R. biologist. He says that the color of a Rainbow’s or Salmon’s flesh is totally dependant on the amount of Carotene that it digests. Carotene, among other things, is the yellow or orange pigment found in many plants, vegetables, and animals. So the color of their flesh is totally dependant on the amount of Carotene in the food that they eat. Some bait fish are high in Carotene and some aren’t. Also it’s an indicator whether a fish is feeding heavy on baitfish or bugs and flies as is common in Rainbows. Insects have a very low Carotene content.

This might be why native stream trout have very orange flesh and planted fish have little color.

~Jan
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