Native trout of the Baja Pensinsula Trout of the Acaponeta watershed Trout of the Rio Baluarte watershed Trout of the Rio del Presidio Trout of the Rio Piaxtla and tributaries Trout of the Rio San Lorenzo watershed Oncorhynchus chrysogaster Trout of the Rio Mayo watershed Trout of the Rio Yaqui watershed Photos from the San Lorenzo watershed

Oncorhynchus sp.

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The Rio San Lorenzo is situated between the Rio Culiacan to the north, and the Rio Piaxtla to the south.  Most of the headwaters of the San Lorenzo are in the low mountains of western Durango.  Two principal tributaries form the mainstem of the Rio San Lorenzo:  the San Gregorio and the Los Remedios.  The few museum specimens of trout from the San Lorenzo watershed are all from southern tributaries of the Los Remedios.  The San Gregorio tributaries and the northern tributaries of the Los Remedios are thought to have trout, but are very difficult to access.

References to "truchas" in the San Lorenzo watershed go all the way back to the late 16th century to a "carta anua" from the Jesuit Missionary Hernando de Santaren.  Santaren worked among the Acaxee Indians who had fled to the mountains to avoid Spanish soldiers. 

The trout of the Rio San Lorenzo watershed are similar to the trout of the Rio Piaxtla.  Both are remarkable for their profusion of parr marks (typically averaging 13 or 14) and for the abundance of auxiliary parr marks on the lower sides.  The colors of the San Lorenzo trout tend to be more muted; but the back and upper sides are infused with purples in the spring.

In the 1950's, the New Mexico Dept. of Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collected trout from the Rio Truchas in the San Lorenzo in an attempt to culture them, and reported them in literature as Mexican Golden Trout.  Attempts to propagate the trout at the National Fish Hatchery in New Mexico were a failure.