It's a brown without a doubt. We get some incredibly big lake run browns on the Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario Tribs. That fish was posted on a Midwest board that I frequent.
We have two types of browns that are planted in the tribs. They stock the German Browns, and a Seeforallen Brown. The Seeforallens' get really big (crowding the 30 pound + mark) and are really a hit with the shore and breakwater anglers. Cathcing a 15 pound plus brownie in the fall, is far from impossible. A few rivers that are only a few miles long, get in excess of 20,000 brownies coming in to spawn in the fall. Many of those are full blown toads. There are many rivers that get plantings of browns that total near 100,000 fish. With great returns, the river and shore fisheries for trolling and drowning spawn bags, are fantastic. You can go to the Wisconsin DNR website, and see the stocking reports for each river.
The Seeforaalens' also are light in color (almost chrome) when coming in from the lake, and have telltale "x" black marks on the backs, down to the midline. They are fat as toads, bot don't have the football look like the German browns.
That fish caused alot of excitement for a handful of guys who had trouble recognizing it as a Seeforallen. We go through tthe same thing, when someone actually catches a chrome bright coho in a river, and starts talking about the nice stelie they caught. No matter what it is, it's still a great fish. Take care, and Happy Holidays. <img border="0" alt="[santa]" title="" src="graemlins/santa.gif" />