Bull trout are members of the salmon family known as char.
Char are distributed farther north than any other group of freshwater fish except Alaskan Blackfish and are well adapted for life in very cold water. Bull trout, Dolly Varden and lake trout are species of char native to the northwest. Bull trout, like other char, exhibit differences in body characteristics and life history behavior across their range. They can grow to more than 20 pounds in lake environments. Bull trout and Dolly Varden were once considered the same species.