Three species, three completely different fish to catch.

Three species worth knowing before your line ever hits the water: brown trout, rainbow trout, and landlocked chinook salmon. Get to know them and you'll fish smarter. Mix them up and you might miss the fight of your day without even realising what you had on.

Knowing which one you're after is decided before the line ever touches the water.

Brown Trout

Brown trout are the suspicious, streetwise fish of the two lakes — golden-brown flanks, dark spots, the odd splash of red, and a habit of hanging tight to drop-offs, river mouths, and structure rather than cruising around in open water where anyone could see them. They're smart, genuinely selective, and they'll make you work for it — which is exactly why landing a big one feels like you've earned something. Browns here regularly run into the several-kilogram range, and every season somebody lands a fish that gets talked about for weeks.

Rainbow Trout

Rainbows are the show-offs of the family — silver-sided, with a pink-to-red stripe running down the flank and dense black spotting over the back and tail. Hook a brown and it sulks and dives; hook a rainbow and it goes straight up, cartwheeling across the surface like it's trying to impress somebody. They're also a little more willing to chase a lure than browns, which makes them the better bet when the fishing's tough and you need something to commit.

Chinook (Quinnat) Salmon

The landlocked chinook is the big one — genuinely large, genuinely powerful, and the last fish most visitors expect to find this far from the ocean. Clean silver with fine black spotting concentrated toward the tail, chinook don't behave like trout at all: they run deep and they school, which is exactly why a downrigger is the tool for finding them rather than luck. Hook one on light tackle and you'll understand pretty quickly why people come back for a second trip.

Telling Them Apart on the Day

At the net, spotting pattern is the fast way to tell them apart: browns show dark spots ringed in red on an olive-gold body, rainbows carry that pink lateral stripe with heavier black spotting, and chinook are the cleanest silver of the three, spotted mainly toward the tail. Knowing which one you're actually after — and where it likes to sit through the season — is most of the battle, and it's decided long before the line ever touches the water.

Ready to tell a brown from a rainbow yourself? Book a half-day or full-day charter on Lake Wānaka and find out on the water.