Dean, forgive me please. I am not trying to disagree, but the greenback is my favorite trout and I am very partial to it and the incredibly beautiful area it inhabits. I’m sorry to say this but I have never ever seen a greenback trout that looks anything like that painting. Even though greenback coloration differs a bit from creek to creek or alpine lake to alpine lake, that painting does not look like any of them.
The tail is all wrong. Greenbacks have a square tail. The colors on the side of the fish are all wrong. Greenbacks are not that color green but rather a light copperish tan color to a more cream color. And all have a faint pinkish to red line from tail to gills. Not as pronounced as the rainbow but there nevertheless.
The multi-color fins are laughable and the spots are all wrong. Except for the tail area, greenback spots are above the lateral line and much less profuse than in the picture. In fact, most have very few spots other than the cluster of spots in the tail area.
Greenback is a misnomer. The trout has no true green on it, although many are of an olive sort of color but it is always light. I don’t know how greenbacks got that name.
That is an impressionistic rendition and bears no resemblance to a true greenback. That picture reminds me of Partker’s flying turnips. It’s that bad.
I shouldn’t care about incorrect renditions but I do because it does tend to confuse people. If someone paints a greenback trout, it should be from life and an accurate representation of nature. The problem is that few care to endure the pain of climbing to high altitudes. Few have ever seen or caught one.
I trek to their environs every year and have been for many years. I fish them in July after ice out and again in October most years. I have caught hundreds of them. The greenback and its environment are in my soul.
When I get a moment, I’ll post a few greenback pictures for you so you can see what they really look like. They are an absolutely incredible fish. They were listed as extinct in 1936 but in the 80’s, they were found by an expedition that took samples of the fish back. DNA testing proved that they were in fact the greenback that was thought extinct. The categorization of the fish was changed to endangered.
Fishing for them is allowed but all must be returned to the water unharmed. Of course, law or not, I would never dream of killing one of those jewels. I haven’t killed a trout for about fifty years except for the brookies I bring to altitude to provide substance over the five days that I spend with the greenbacks and bighorns.
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