Dolly Varden

[Buck Skin]

so i was up fishing last weekend with my pop and we were catching Dolly varden left right and center, but where we were fishing u couldnt keep them. i have never eaten one before and im just wondering are they okay to eat? some one told us that they were bottom feeders.


cheers, BS

[Little Red Man]

I have eaten quite a few over the years....They tasted pretty good to me....IIRC they are a type of Char, and taste kinda like a cross between Rainbow Trout and Lake Trout.....

[BromBones]

I've talked to a few people who think they're garbage fish, which is bogus.

They are really good eating. Pretty much lived on dollys and trout out of the Kispiox river in the summers back when I was a young fella.

[behemoth]

They taste great, a kind of whitish flesh, eaten like any char.

Fun to chase on the cricks with a fly rod

There used to be a bounty on their heads and they havent quite fully recovered from that yet

[ryanb]

They taste great, better than rainbow in my opinion, and less bony.

[thetackdriver]

Dollys taste really good imho . Havent had one in years though. All catch and realease where i fish them

[Brew]

I eat them often. Dolly's taste excellent. The ones i catch have bright red meat. If they have lighter colored meat and dont taste that great it may be a bull trout. The two fish are very similar but dollys by far taste the best. I catch the two in stave lake and have eaten both. The bull trout get much bigger than the dolly

[Dannybuoy]

Are you catching Dolly Varden or Bull trout ? I think there is quite a difference in the flesh . Most people call Bull trout Dollies but they are not very similar ( pictures in the fishing regs) Bull trout are red/orange flesh and get quite large and are very good eating , the dolly varden are generally under a pound and pretty much live in coastal streams/rivers .
I dont remember whether the flesh is red or white as i havent caught any since I was a kid fishing in the vedder/sumas rivers .

[BromBones]

Flesh on a dolly is red

[TPB]

I agree with Danny bull trout and Dollys are ofter mistaken and were actually thought to be the same species up until 1985 or something like that. Either way they are both part of the char family and both very good eating.

[Buck Skin]

Are you catching Dolly Varden or Bull trout ? I think there is quite a difference in the flesh . Most people call Bull trout Dollies but they are not very similar ( pictures in the fishing regs) Bull trout are red/orange flesh and get quite large and are very good eating , the dolly varden are generally under a pound and pretty much live in coastal streams/rivers .
I dont remember whether the flesh is red or white as i havent caught any since I was a kid fishing in the vedder/sumas rivers .
im catchin dollies for sure. i guess i gotta go where there is keeping the fish becaus where we were fishing it was all catch and realase:cry: cheers BS

[Buck Skin]

Thank you for all the help boys i appreciate it.


cheers BS

[WaterSkeeter]

Are you catching Dolly Varden or Bull trout ? I think there is quite a difference in the flesh . Most people call Bull trout Dollies but they are not very similar ( pictures in the fishing regs) Bull trout are red/orange flesh and get quite large and are very good eating , the dolly varden are generally under a pound and pretty much live in coastal streams/rivers .
I dont remember whether the flesh is red or white as i havent caught any since I was a kid fishing in the vedder/sumas rivers .

Iv caught dollys up to 10 lbs in the Chilcoten river when steelheading.

[204rug.ftw]

have both bull trout and dolly in the freezer right now, the smaller 3 pound dollies are best eating over the common 15 pound bulls. But both taste great smoked :)

[WaterSkeeter]

have both bull trout and dolly in the freezer right now, the smaller 3 pound dollies are best eating over the common 15 pound bulls. But both taste great smoked :)

You can keep bulls in B.C?

[jml11]

You can keep bulls in B.C?

yes from many lakes. No retention from streams.

[ryanb]

yes from many lakes. No retention from streams.

Wrong,
You can keep Bull/dollies from streams in ALL REGIONS EXCEPT region 2 and 7a....(with some restrictions).

Read your regs.

[WaterSkeeter]

huh, you get caught keeping bulls in Alberta they will hang you.......not really but give you a huge fine lol

[Rodd]

Yummy! I've been eating Bull Trout for years! Some are Red, some are orange, and some are nearly white! It depends on what they primarily feed on I think.... But they are all good up here in the Columbia River! Remember Brook Trout are from the Char Family, and are my favourite for sure. Similar though to Bull Trout.

[fuzzybiscuit]

Well...now I'm just confused. What the hell is it that we catch on the Island? If Dolly's are supposed to taste great then there is no way we are catching Dolly's.:-D

Myself and everyone I've fished with call them Dolly's and up until now I've never had any reason to question what they were. I didn't think there was Bull trout on the Island although I knew that they were similar to Dolly's.

Either way they have pale flesh the texture of a banana, and usually taste like mud. Also, in many of the lakes around Campbell River, they are full of worms. I've eaten a few over the years and they were in no way comparable to the taste of Bows' or Cutties.

I believe you guys that have had them and say they taste great in the Interior, but they must be different on the Island.

We usually just call them Eagle food.:-D

[jml11]

Wrong,
You can keep Bull/dollies from streams in ALL REGIONS EXCEPT region 2 and 7a....(with some restrictions).

Read your regs.


Whoa relax....in case you didn't notice I live in 7a...pardon me for not having memorized the regs for the ENTIRE province...sheesh

[204rug.ftw]

Wrong,
You can keep Bull/dollies from streams in ALL REGIONS EXCEPT region 2 and 7a....(with some restrictions).

Read your regs.

actually i cant keep bulls from any stream or major tributary from the columbia river and lake revelstoke. im in region 4

[jml11]

Wrong,
You can keep Bull/dollies from streams in ALL REGIONS EXCEPT region 2 and 7a....(with some restrictions).

Read your regs.


Just flipped through the regs and it seems you also should read the regs....

There is also no retention form streams in Regions 1 and 8.

Region 3 is quite restricted with no retention on fish under 60cm with seasons open in a few streams only during the fall. Most streams are closed entirely or have size restrictions of no fish under 80cm.

Region 4 has many size restrictions and watersheds closed entirely 4.

Region 5 and 6 offer the best opportunity for stream bulls/dollys as they have generous openings however there are some size and timing restrictions on specific waterbodies.

Region 7b is open in the Liard Watershed with size restrictions of 30 to 50cm.

So to answer waterskeeters original question. Yes Bulls and Dollys are open for retention in B.C. Most lakes are open; however, most streams in the province are closed or have timing/size restrictions. Check the regs for specifics.

[Bistchen]

I enjoy Dollies/Bull trout as table fair. I still prefer Kokanee and Rainbow over Dollie, but fish is fish. One way of telling them apart is if the end of the mouth does not go past the pupil of the eye, its a dolly, and if it goes past that, its an obvious bull.
I found the further inland you go in the coastal range the more bull you get. Some people think they are the same fish, but not through my own personal fishing expierience

[204rug.ftw]

you can also tell them apart from thier body features, the dollys have a more rounder head, and the bulls have a huge head on em with a flatter nose. the dollies apparently have a snake-like body also, according to the bc fish identification pages.

[WaterSkeeter]

Here are the Bulls in Alberta, no Dollys here.

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af77/WaterSkeeter87/sgtsgsdfg.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af77/WaterSkeeter87/bbq041.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af77/WaterSkeeter87/bbq040.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af77/WaterSkeeter87/bbq044.jpg

[Brew]

Here is a big bull. Look at the size of the head and mouth and the darker color scheme. The meat is light in color and resembles a chum salmon or a white spring.
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss117/Bare20/P4070245.jpg

This is a dolly from the same lake. More silver and the head does not dominate the body. The mouth does not go way past the eye as well. The meat is bright red as you can see in the pic.
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss117/Bare20/P3290226.jpg
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss117/Bare20/P3290228.jpg

[WaterSkeeter]

What lake are those from? Dollys and Bulls do not share the same system

[WaterSkeeter]

I asked a buddy on a fishing bc site, VERY knowledgeable this is what he said when he saw the pics.


Both are Bulls. Dolly Varden and Bull trout do not share the same environment. It's very hard to find true Dolly Varden anywhere but Vancouver Island and a few, further up coast locations. Virtually all interior Bull/Dolly type char are Bull trout. And, it's almost impossible for anyone but a biologist who has access to DNA testing to determine species.

[WaterSkeeter]

Heres another opinion on the thread by a qualified person.

The only true reliable morphological feature to tell bulls from dollies is to count the # of branchiostegal rays. The one species has >23 the other less. I cannot remember which is which. I will look tomorrow in one of my books in my office. Of course to count these you need to kill the fish which in most situations are illegal.

As a side note dollies are genetically closer to Arctic char than to bull trout...

Oh, and I do agree with ......., both are bulls

[Brew]

No problem. Your friends may be right. I do catch these fish often. And fish many lakes for them during spring and summer. Here are some more pics. Identify these ones.
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss117/Bare20/P3290208-1.jpg
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss117/Bare20/P4070246.jpg
Number one. I say dolly
number two. Bull

[kishman]

Both Bulls I think....:confused: Either way sure looks like some good times out in the boat, nice job.

[springpin]

looks like a Bully to me.

[WaterSkeeter]

Not sure as I don't know where you caught those, I just asked others to look and some of them are biologists so im sure they would know. I was just curious what they were to and I figured they were bulls as any dollys I have caught look nothing like the fish you have there..

[kishman]

Not sure as I don't know where you caught those, I just asked others to look and some of them are biologists so im sure they would know. I was just curious what they were to and I figured they were bulls as any dollys I have caught look nothing like the fish you have there..

I was thinking the same thing, maybe you should just tell me (PM of course) exactly where you caught them and maybe I figure this thing out for myself.....:wink::mrgreen:

[Brew]

The first fish was cought in stave lake. Second fish was cought in alouette lake just over the mountain.

[Brew]

Anderson lake in D'arcy(spelling?) has unbeleivable fishing for bulls in may.

[204rug.ftw]

Impretty sure we have both species here and im pretty sure they live together, but then again im not a super biologist that can tell you whether you have them in your river or not. You never know iguess and frankly i dont care, they both look the same and are good eats