well I got home from St.Louis friday made plans to hit fish lake sunday.. everything went as planed. we got there about 7:00 in the morning. got the snowmobile loaded up and out we went.. we were trying for some lakers but only came up with splake.. we did catch some nice ones up 23" and around 4 or 5 lbs.. fishing was stedy all day. it was tommys first time fishing fish lake so he had a blast. and cought his first 20" + splake.. lol it gave him a great fight.. [cool]
all in all a great day. other then the sunburn today [shocked] ..
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Those Splake sure do look like Mac's to me. What is the characteristic differences between the two? Is it the dorsil fin?
TS
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splake have round spots and are darker in color then the mack's are in fish lake.. the round spot's are the onley way i can tell the diffrence.
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Your son has a great look on his face, nice day of fishing.
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Ron, looks like a great day on Fish Lake. Can 4 wheelers get around Ok at Fish Lake?
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Sounds like a nice trip Ron. I hate those wintertime sunburns though.
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on the lake no problem getting it on the lake might be..
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Those Splake sure do look like Mac's to me. What is the characteristic differences between the two? Is it the dorsil fin?
TS[/reply]
Splake are the result of a cross between a mac and a brook trout. Think about the characteristics of those two fish, then cross them:
brook trout: Round spots (wavy on the back, but all others are circular), Square tail, white then black stripe on front edge of lower fins.
lake trout: oblong spotting (non-circular), deeply forked tail.
Splake get a good mix of the two: circular spots, deeper forked tail than a brook trout, but not as deep as a lake trout. Can be brilliantly colored like a brook trout, or silvery like a lake trout (Be careful trying to identify based on color. In Fish Lake, lake trout are known to color up intensely like a splake or brook trout).
Many people have extreme difficulties when identifying a splake vs. a lake trout. Even biologists can at times have trouble distinguishing between the two (or three -- brook trout!). In a place like Blind Lake, the splake and brook trout look very much alike. Blue halo's around the spots can many times aid in differentiating between a splake and a brook trout -- but not always. The tails can also be beneficial.
The pictures are difficult to try to identify from. I'd really be sticking my neck out by trying to claim that they are not what the fuzzball claims they are -- but they do look very much like lake trout too me.
The spots are not circular enough for me, and the tails are very deeply forked, more so that what I would expect for a splake. I may be wrong, but I think they are small lake trout. (Even experienced anglers can get these fish wrong at times!)
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From the pics...the fish look like lake trout.
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I asked a biologist on FL while there one day the best way to tell the difference and he told me to go by the tail - deep fork = laker. I have looked at a lot of pics and not all big lakers have a deep fork or at least they don't look it to me. I have put both side by side and tried to point out the differences to myself - I do not trust the spot shape on small fish while the tails are noticably different in my eyes. On the larger fish I think the spots are noticably different but not the tails. If a CO ever questions what I have I guess that will be my story and I am sticking to it [cool]
Anyhow this is almost like is it a cutt or a bow out of Strawberry question that comes up routinely.
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Like I said -- they can be very difficult at times to distinguish between the two.
With fish like this, never rely on a single characteristic to identify. Use multiply. Look at both the spots and the tail.
FWIW -- don't rely on your ignorance to save yourself from a potential ticket. In situations where there might be special regulations pertaining to a certain fish that you cannot 100% identify, consider releasing the fish. Splake can be a difficult fish to identify for anyone (heck, just look at this thread -- the world renowned fuzzyfisher mis-id'd the fish in the pics as splake!). Rainbows and Cutts can be difficult at times at Strawberry. If you don't know, let it go.
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