Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, laker, and grey trout.

They are native only to the northern parts of North America, principally Canada, but also Alaska and, to some extent, the northeastern United States.

[7] Lake trout are the largest of the chars; the record weighed almost 102 pounds (46 kg) (netted) with a length of 50 inches (130 cm), and 15–40-pound (6.8–18.1-kilogram) fish are not uncommon.

Many native lake trout populations have been severely damaged through the combined effects of hatchery stocking (planting) and over harvest.

Lake trout in planktivorous populations are highly abundant, grow very slowly and mature at relatively small sizes.

Siscowet numbers have become greatly depressed over the years due to a combination of the extirpation of some of the fish's deep water coregonine prey and to overexploitation.

Siscowet tend to grow extremely large and fat and attracted great commercial interest in the last century.

[12] Splake are also artificially propagated in hatcheries, and then stocked into lakes in an effort to provide sport-fishing opportunities.

[14] The specific epithet namaycush derives from namekush, a form of the word used in some inland Southern East Cree communities in referring to this species of fish.