Super Trout Species - the Donaldson Trout!

Professor "Doc" Lauren Donaldson a University of Washington graduate in 1932 began to experiment with selective breeding and enhanced nutrition programs to develop a new strain of trout. He wanted a trout that would grow faster, weigh more, become highly productive and still, best of all, be a ferocious fighter.

By 1944 he was successful in developing a species that has extremely fast growth rates. What he achieved, he named the Donaldson Trout, but it is somewhat better known as the "Super Trout". Donaldson's are a unique strain of trout blended from some of the best attributes of rainbows, steelhead and cutthroat trout. These trout act more like a wild trout than a hatchery trout and they can be very hard hitting.

Their growth rate is astounding. An average wild trout will reach sexual maturity in approximately 4 years and it will average 1 and 1/2 pounds, while the Donaldson Trout or "super" trout will grow to 4 pounds in only two years time, remarkable!

Here is a testimony from a fisherman who had the delightful experience of fishing for the Super Trout. "I went out with some buddies to Lake Amador to do a little "investigative journalism" the other day - to see what the hype is really all about. While the bite wasn't red hot, we caught enough of these bad boys to become extremely impressed. Not only did the fish fight very well - they burned line and jumped all over the place - but they were also very nice looking. Their fins and tails were in much better shape than the average hatchery 'bow and they were very silver in color (not the usual purple-gray of a planter)

The Donaldson Trout is now used around the world in commercial aquaculture operations. For example, during one year recently in Finland, some 18,000 metric tons of "Super" rainbow trout were grown in sea cages. Norway produced about the same quantity, and Japan, about 30,000 metric tons. The super fish are also being grown on the east coast of the U.S. and Canada.

Professor Lauren "Doc" Donaldson was born in Tracy, Minnesota. It is rumored that Doc became the first in his family to ear a college degree, attending Intermountain Union College, Helena, Montana. After college, he worked for the Montana Fish and Game Department fish hatcheries. Then, in 1930, during the Great Depression, Doc accepted a Teaching Assistant job the University of Washington. He arrived in a Model-A Ford with his wife, year-old son and $5 in his pocket. He remained with the University until his retirement some 43 years later.

During the time Doc was at the University of Washington, he experimented with Chinook salmon and succeeded in getting them to hatch in his own facility and return 4 years later, like clockwork to spawn. That was the first time something like this took place in a controlled environment. Along the way, he developed a new breed of salmon nameded th Donaldson Salmon.

For more about Doc, just go to the University's Web site for Research.