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been seeing more and more people start talking about keeping a limit of the smaller lake trout to help out the other fish in Flaming Gorge, I usually release everything I catch as im not big into eating fish (maybe ive just never had fish cooked up the good way, I dunno... Anyways.)
my Gf's Grandma and mom is always bugging me to bring them home some fish to cook as they love fish, so I was Thinking maybe Id start keeping the mac Pups to bring home to them along with helping out the other fish,
Now I know Keeping Lake trout is a very sore and sensitive subject so please dont jump down my throat for asking this.
just looking to see what sizes the majority of us anglers would bring home for dinner at and what size do you consider future trophy fish and put back to grow even larger?
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For me it would be anything between 2-6 lbs would be good eating everything else would go back
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I would say ten pounds.
But, a bunch of three and four pounders is a lot of eating and better for the population.
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They ALL eat very good. I have smoked and ate outright 15#ers that were to die for. Just make damn sure you eat them and don't let them go to waste or freezer burn. Don't worry about social acceptability.
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[quote lunkerhunter2]
In before the lock...[/quote]
Hopefully we can keep from turning this into an ugly debate that makes a mods job harder & ends up getting locked
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A 3-5 pound laker is a good to eat as just about any trout, in my opinion. The bigger ones seem to have a lot of fat in them. When you cook them up, your house smells like fish oil for weeks.
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My wife and I will keep anything in the 2-5 pound range to eat, from 5-10 to smoke up as they are little more fatty, and over 10 pounds I find the fat levels of a lake trout to be outside of what I enjoy. 8-10 is acceptable but pushing the limits.
If you are planning to let it go though, I recommend taking a guess on the weight and not subjecting the fish to a scale.
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Keep what ever you feel will be eaten. You keep what you like, don't worry about what everyone else thinks. Good luck and good fishing.
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thanks for the input,
and thank you everyone else who has commented in this thread in a positive way and not turned it into something ugly
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[quote TRUBBS]thanks for the input,
and thank you everyone else who has commented in this thread in a positive way and not turned it into something ugly[/quote]
Thanks Trubbs. Appreciate your sentiment. A reasonable question, and deserving of the almost fully reasonable answers you got.
I'll bet similar to what I find with mid-to-larger catfish, additional trimming of filets, especially the "grey" line and belly will help cut down on the fatty tissues and reduce the "fishy" flavor. Plus - less of the more "deposited" fish parts that a larger predator will collect toxins in.
No recipes?
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I've never kept any lakers over 24". I do wonder though if the burbot population explosion at the Gorge might alter the picture there?
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