Did Maligne Lake really produce Alberta’s largest-ever rainbow trout? New scientific evidence casts serious doubt

Back in 1980, when the rainbow trout was submitted to the then Alberta Fish and Game Association (AFGA) for consideration as a potential provincial record, it was standard practice to include an affidavit signed by the angler and a witness. In this case, however, the affidavit was only signed by an observer who said he saw the fish from shore when it was caught on May 26 that year; neither the angler, recorded as a Ron Solomon from California, nor the guide signed anything.

At the time, AFGA’s efforts to track down the angler were unsuccessful. Bob Scammell, a lawyer and well-known outdoors columnist, wrote two letters to Ron Solomon, but never received a reply. In spite of having gained some serious boasting rights, the angler simply vanished. Strange indeed. It’s almost as though he never existed. As for the guide who purportedly took Solomon out onto Maligne Lake, he also never submitted an affidavit, despite repeated requests from Scammell.

According to a retired Jasper warden, a person who was present when the big fish was caught confirmed the Californian actually did exist, and that he’d caught it on a Rapala plug—in First Lake. Others present had apparently encouraged Solomon to release the fish, but he refused. Instead, he is alleged to have sold it to the same local fishing outfitter who had gotten so indignant with me. That would have made for two offences: fishing out of season in a closed lake, and selling a sportfish. No charges were ever laid, however.

In spite of the insufficient paperwork, AFGA accepted the fish as Alberta’s new record rainbow. As for the outfitter who supposedly bought the fish, he arranged to have it mounted and put on display to help market Maligne Lake for his guiding business. Don Petrician, a taxidermist in Stony Plain, Alberta, was chosen to create the mount.

The day Alberta’s record rainbow trout was caught, it was feeding. But it was not feeding in Maligne Lake

In his efforts to learn more about the record rainbow, David Donald approached Petrician, who allowed him to examine the fish when he skinned it out. Donald observed that the trout’s flesh was bright orange, typical of trout that feed heavily on freshwater shrimp—unlike the pale pink flesh of Maligne Lake trout, which have relatively few shrimp to feed on.

Donald also determined the trout was only five years old, based on the annular growth rings on its scales. That indicated a growth rate consistent with what he’d recorded for rainbows in First Lake, but wildly out of whack with the growth rate of Maligne’s fish.

As well, the fish was a male, with flaccid and empty milt sacs indicating it had already spawned. Had it actually been caught on May 26, however, it couldn’t have spawned yet. While rainbows in Jasper’s low-elevation lakes can spawn in late May, Maligne warms too slowly, so its rainbows mostly spawn in early June. Not only was the record fish vastly bigger for its age than the lake’s other similarly aged rainbows, it had also mysteriously found a way to spawn in water so icy that none of the other fish had even begun to consider the idea.

The big trout’s diet was even more revealing. Its belly was crammed with freshwater shrimp, as well as nymphs of damselfly and large caddisfly species, which don’t live in Maligne Lake. They are common, however, in low-elevation habitats such as First Lake. Conspicuously absent from the trout’s stomach contents, meanwhile, were stoneflies and seven other species of caddis common to Maligne Lake. Donald’s conclusion? “The day Alberta’s record rainbow trout was caught, it was feeding. But it was not feeding in Maligne Lake.”