Oncorhynchus masu

Otherwise known as cherry salmon, cherry trout, masu salmon, yamame, etc.
Native to Asian/Russian coasts and inland. Appears to get short-shrifted in
a couple comprehensive books on salmonids I've looked through. (The Watson
book doesn't list it in the index.)

Does anyone know if any attempts were made to introduce it into American
waters for sportfishing? I saw several in a mountain village aquarium
outside Tokyo, and it's a remarkably beautiful fish, with colorful rose parr
markings well into adulthood, to my mind up there in aesthetic appeal with
golden trout. According to some fly fishermen I talked to while on a trip to
Japan, it's also the most heat-tolerant of the salmonids; a native
population exists even in Taiwan. It would seem to be a better fit for most
U.S. stocking programs, especially on the east coast, than brown trout,
though I can't get rid myself of the feeling that it's somehow an alien
species, while Salmo trutta isn't.

And I suspect that would be the reaction of most to the idea. Pity. Perhaps
some adventurous fisheries official in North Carolina might consider
establishing a spawning searun trout population in Dixie.