Fish Species found at Odell Lake

Lake Trout or Mackinaw: 

 Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also be variously known as siscowet, paperbelly, and lean. The lake trout is prized both as a game fish and as a food fish.

Kokanee (Salmon)

Kokanee are the landlocked form of sockeye salmon. Because they never migrate out to the ocean to feed, kokanee are often much smaller than sockeye. However, other than their size, kokanee have very similar identifying characteristics to sockeye. Most kokanee live in a lake for most of their lives, so you can usually see them spawning near the edge of a lake or in a small tributary that feeds into a lake. 

Rainbow Trout

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

• an elongate, laterally compressed body;
• a rounded snout, which becomes extended, and the lower jaw turns up in breeding males;
• the back, upper sides, and the top of the head are steel blue, blue-green, yellow-green to almost brown;
• The sides are silvery, white, or pale yellow-green to grey, and marked with a pink blush to red band and many small black spots;
• The underside is silvery, white, or grey to yellowish.
• The dorsal and caudal fins have radiating rows of black spots, while the remaining fins are buff with few spots; and stream-dwelling and spawning brown trout display darker, more intense colours, whereas lake residents are lighter, brighter, and more silvery.

The species has been introduced for food or sport to at least 45 countries, and every continent except Antarctica. In some locations, such as Southern Europe, Australia and South America, they have negatively impacted upland native fish species, either by eating them, outcompeting them, transmitting contagious diseases, (such as whirling disease transmitted by Tubifex) or hybridization with closely related species and subspecies that are native to western North America.

Mountain White Fish

The mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) is one of the most widely distributed salmonid fish of western North America. It is found from the Mackenzie River drainage in Northwest Territory, Canada, south through western Canada and the northwestern USA in the Pacific, Hudson Bay, and upper Missouri River basins to the Truckee River drainage in Nevada and the Sevier River drainage in Utah.
The body shape is superficially similar to that of the cyprinids, although it is distinguished by having the adipose fin of salmonids. The body is slender and nearly cylindrical in cross-section, generally silver with a dusky, olive-green shade dorsally. The short head has a small mouth underneath the snout. The short dorsal fin has 12-13 rays, with 11-13 for the anal fin, 10-12 for the pelvic fins, and 14-18 for the pectoral fins. The tail fin is forked. Size has been recorded at up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) in length and a weight of 2.9 kilograms (6.4 pounds).

It is a fish found in mountain streams and lakes, favoring clear, cold water and large, deep pools at least a meter deep; the Lake Tahoe population lives just above the bottom in deeper water. Mountain whitefish are bottom feeders, stirring up the substrate with their pectoral and tail fins to expose insect larvae and other invertebrates, such as snails, crayfish, and amphipods. Their main feeding time is in the evening, but they will also take drifting prey during the day. The mountain whitefish frequently feeds in the lower strata of streams, but populations may rise to the surface to prey on hatching insects, including mayflies.