NBC day at Lost Creek

[Jig-fisher]

Hit Lost Creek early this morning.  I did not make the long hike today, although maybe I should have. It was nothing but cutts (NBC) today.  Not much size to them either.  Tried a different spot, but not too productive.  Drilled a lot of holes, ended up catching only 8 fish. Early was best, between 6 and 7 am. 

Over several years the tails of  a lot of the cutts have chunks missing out of them.  This one today was the worst I've seen.

Ice had firmed up and no issues getting on or off.  

[Cowboypirate]

Jaws?

[Saltslam]

I've noticed this on one of the reservoirs down south. Anyone have any ideas on the cause? Maybe a parasite?

[BearLakeFishGuy]

The deformed tail is a hatchery artifact.  As the fish are growing, they begin nipping each other.  This slows down as the fish get larger, but once the injury is there, the fin rays (cartilage) will typically grow out deformed and this is what you see.  Sometimes its just a genetic deformity, but those fish typically die prior to stocking.  You will not only see this on the tails but on the dorsal fin.  The fish missing their pectoral fins have typically wore those off on the raceway walls (concrete is abrasive), but most of the hatcheries have mitigated this to a large degree now.  Those "finless Freddies" were pretty typical up to around 2000 but since that time they are less frequent.  Hope that helps!

[Saltslam]

Thanks bearlake. I've noticed on the dorsal fin but never the tail. It seems to only be on the cutts tails down south. I'm guessing they're more aggressive in the hatchery.

[TheOtherSide]

That's really interesting. I've caught a ton of cutt's this year, but haven't seen anything like that. Is it more hatchery specific where you might see more fish with these deformities from one place than somewhere else?