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Me and the Father in Law did alright on the lake today, fish weren't super agressive; but we found some. Got there at 7am and called it at 3pm. For once we didn't get blown off the lake. Jim finished the day with 22 and I caught 18. All pretty decent size rainbows, with a couple in the 3 lbs range. Can't wait to cook them up tomorrow, Starvy Bows are always a tasty meal. The water is still pretty cold, @ 40deg. Can't wait to get out when it warms up and the fish get a little more active!
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Nice report. Sure are some fatties! Must be eating the perch? See any in their bellies?
TiteLines
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The ones I caught last fall had bellies full of tiny green bugs. Scuds? I have never seen fatter trout and when I say fat I mean their flesh was literally oozing fat.
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Wow, those are some fatties!
They still holding pretty deep in the colder water?
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[quote wall3y3]The ones I caught last fall had bellies full of tiny green bugs. Scuds? I have never seen fatter trout and when I say fat I mean their flesh was literally oozing fat.[/quote]
[#0000FF]Starvation is a fertile lake. It produces hordes of daphnia (water fleas) and zooplankton. Those rainbows can make a pretty good living on invertebrates alone. They don't need to feed on the baby perch...like browns do.
And since daphia are crustaceans...related to shrimp...they have lots of carotene (vitamin A) in them and that is what results in the rich red flesh.
The Starvation rainbows are also a slightly different strain than those in many other Utah waters. They come from the Jones Hole hatchery over on the Colorado border. For some reason they seem to grow more quickly and they also seem to fight a bit harder...with a lot of them going airborne when hooked. I caught several right near the bottom in 30 feet of water on one trip...and they hit the top within seconds of the hookset. Had to reel fast to take up the slack and then it was game on.
I nicknamed them "Starvation steelhead" a few years ago for their qualities in size, fighting and fine eating.
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Interesting - had to go and read up on Daphnia and Amphipoda. Do you know if the rainbows they are planting from Jones Hole are sterile? I have notice that the sterile rainbows in Strawberry are not like non-sterile rainbows - they seem like they have a fatter body with a smaller head and tail. They don't seem as firm and healthy as the non-sterile ones.
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[#0000FF]Yes, the RBT planted in Starvy ARE triploid...sterile. But that does not prevent a few of them from developing eggs or milt and going through a futile spawn...with infertile eggs. Not all.
The ones that do not develop eggs or milt do not suffer the self-destructive process that draws nutrients out of the fishes' flesh to develop the spawning organs. So any you catch in late fall or early spring devoid of developed sex organs will have firmer and tastier flesh. The truly sterile ones have only to eat and grow...not take time out to play house.
I have a practice of simply releasing any that I catch that are visibly "pregnant"...or males which have developed the dark spawning colors and a hooked jaw. But you can't always tell with females and you can get some that have developing eggs without being readily apparent.
Bottom line: Even some of the sterile ones will spawn, but the eggs will not hatch.
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