I was talking to a good customer of Trout University yesterday and he told me about blueback trout which I had never heard of before. It seem that he is from Vermont and fishes a great deal in Northwest Maine where he came across the blueback trout. It is actually a char and it is believed that is of European descent. The blueback trout is native to the headwaters of the St. John and Penobscot rivers, Black Lake, Deboullie Lake, Gardner Lake, Purshineer Pond, Big Reed Pond, and Rainbow Lake. It has been stocked in Idaho, other parts of Maine, New Hampshire Massachusetts and New York. This information has been provided by the USGS.
These blueback trout appear to be related to and very similar to the brook trout of the Appalachians. The major difference is that the black appears to be far more blue than the brook trout. However, the blueback trout are in danger of becoming extinct due primarily to the increasing populations of smelts that were illegally introduced. The Maine Department Of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (DIF&W) has started to reclaim the Big Reed Pond in Maine by eliminating the competing smelt and reintroducing the blueback trout. This information is from an article in the Bangor Main Outdoors. More
Here is a picture of Gary Picard of Mountain Springs Trout Farm preparing to release some farm raised blueback trout. 