03-04-2005, 03:01 PM
[font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]It is amazing how fast reported bad news travels in this fishing community. Last year was the best big fish year that I have ever had in my 50+ years of fishing Henrys Lake. There were only three of us fishermen that fished the lake consistantly all summer last year and we all had the best fishing, in terms of big fish, that we have ever had.
I took 62 fish over 10 pounds and three fish in the 20 pound range ( the largest was a 34 1/2 incher with a 24 inch girth). The key to the large fish was that they were all in water from 4 to 7 feet deep. For some reason they did not move out into the deeper water and most fishermen who fished Henrys, fished the deeper water and reported terrible fishing. The total numbers of fish have been down, but it looks like the numbers are coming back which will keep more fishermen interested. Also last season, the bait fishermen had a very tough time catching fish on Henrys. And since the fish were in the shallows, the trollers also had a tough time.
There appears to be some very interesting facts about the sterile hybrids in the lake. Not all hybrids are sterile, but the Fish and Game are trying to sterilize most of them. It appears that the largest fish in the lake are sterile females - they do not have any reproductive organs and do not run into the hatchery. The two hybrids pictured are both males and they run into the hatchery. (I guess they are like us male humans - we try!!!!) This lack of stress on the females at spawning time allows them to grow larger and their bodies balloon with the most of them at 27 inches having a girth of 20 to 22 inches. If you go back to last year's posts about Henrys Lake, there are some pix of these sterile females that I caught last year.
The Fish and Game also purchased 250,000 brook trout eggs from Canada and hopefully will have 100,000 fingerlings to plant this season. They will be planting some in June and some in September to check the survival rate of the two plants. Each plant will be marked differently to see what happens. The hatchery manager is excited to see the gill net results in May and the season to see what in happening. I am very optomistic that this season will have more fish - fewer large ones - but enough mixed in to keep me on the lake. Last year's number of big fish will be very hard to duplicate.
Sorry this is so long - but it may help some of you.
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I took 62 fish over 10 pounds and three fish in the 20 pound range ( the largest was a 34 1/2 incher with a 24 inch girth). The key to the large fish was that they were all in water from 4 to 7 feet deep. For some reason they did not move out into the deeper water and most fishermen who fished Henrys, fished the deeper water and reported terrible fishing. The total numbers of fish have been down, but it looks like the numbers are coming back which will keep more fishermen interested. Also last season, the bait fishermen had a very tough time catching fish on Henrys. And since the fish were in the shallows, the trollers also had a tough time.
There appears to be some very interesting facts about the sterile hybrids in the lake. Not all hybrids are sterile, but the Fish and Game are trying to sterilize most of them. It appears that the largest fish in the lake are sterile females - they do not have any reproductive organs and do not run into the hatchery. The two hybrids pictured are both males and they run into the hatchery. (I guess they are like us male humans - we try!!!!) This lack of stress on the females at spawning time allows them to grow larger and their bodies balloon with the most of them at 27 inches having a girth of 20 to 22 inches. If you go back to last year's posts about Henrys Lake, there are some pix of these sterile females that I caught last year.
The Fish and Game also purchased 250,000 brook trout eggs from Canada and hopefully will have 100,000 fingerlings to plant this season. They will be planting some in June and some in September to check the survival rate of the two plants. Each plant will be marked differently to see what happens. The hatchery manager is excited to see the gill net results in May and the season to see what in happening. I am very optomistic that this season will have more fish - fewer large ones - but enough mixed in to keep me on the lake. Last year's number of big fish will be very hard to duplicate.
Sorry this is so long - but it may help some of you.
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