Lake trout
species of fish
The lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in Northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, laker, 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. Those caught with dark coloration may be called mud hens.
Taxonomy and etymology
It is the only member of the subgenus Cristovomer, which is more derived than the subgenus Baione (the most basal clade of Salvelinus, containing the brook trout (S. fontinalis) and silver trout (S. agasizii)) but still basal to the other members of Salvelinus.
The specific epithet namaycush derives from namekush, a form of the word used in some inland Southern East Cree communities in referring to this species of fish. Other variations found in East Cree are kûkamâs[h], kûkamâw and kûkamesh. Similar cognate words are found in Ojibwe: namegos = "lake trout"; namegoshens = "rainbow trout," literally meaning "little lake trout."
Range
From a zoogeographical perspective, lake trout have a relatively narrow distribution. They are native only to the northern parts of North America, principally Canada, but also Alaska and, to some extent, the Northeastern United States.
The public source identifies “Lake trout” as species of fish. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lake, trout and species.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q469946. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lake trout” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.