Fishing Forum

My wife and kids and about 2,000 other anglers hit the hard deck of FL on Sat. Jan 31. I am not kidding, I have never seen so many people on a lake since attending a massive ice fishing derby in Minnesota. The word is definately out!
We were on the ice from around 8 am to 2 pm. Between 8 - 10 is when the fish action was the best, but at a much casual intensity then what we experienced two weeks ago. The splake were deeper this time around (about 40 ft) and weren't prowling shallow like last time. The ice is is 12 inches thick with a one inch layer of hard crusty snow on top. Lots of 4 wheelers and snowmobiles on the ice. We were fishing 50 yards out from where twin creeks empties in to the lake in about 62 ft of water. My two teenagers did most of the catchi'n while I did most of the tangeli'n and untangelin with the rigs of my younger two and my wife's. We caught 5 splake in the 14 - 15 inch range and a rainbow that had it's two front fins clipped down to a stubb and one eye taken out. Seeing him like that leeds me to think that some bored anglers had a little too much time on theirs hands and decided to do some tackle box "surgery" with a new found fishing philosphy of "Catch, Maime & Release" . It made me !!. Are my asumptions correct or could this ocurr naturally?
I apologize for not having pictures to show you all, so you could see it.

Tight Lines Everyone !
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Sounds like you and your family had a good day on the ice. It is hard to tell without seeing a picture of the fish but a lot of hatchery fish do have their fins worn down to nubs. As far as one of the eyes being out, it could have happened when someone caught the fish and the hook went into the fishes eye. I have seen this happen before but who knows. WH2
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planters in fish lake will often have the fins nubbed like that. as for the eye it very well could've escaped a mac attack and lost it in the battle. did it have white stripes in it's scales (bite marks)?
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No scratch marks, it looked pretty clean around the eye. The funny thing about this rainbow was that he was pretty fat and healthy looking.
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What i've heard, (not saying it is gospel) but hatchery fish are sometimes marked to indicate the date of release, one or both front fins clipped. Might have to ask DWR? my 2 cents.
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All the rainbows we caught at FL yesterday had the front fins nubbed. I always thought, like the previous posts, that that was just a sign of hatchery trout. I was not sure if they were clipped at the hatchery or just rubbed off on the cement raceways. Not sure about the eye though.
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I've caught plenty of rainbows from the Fremont River that looked like that, and I would think they all come from the same hatchery in Teasdale.
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I'm not sure if your fish was a "catch, maime, and release" fish, but your point has absolute merit. Sadly, even though it is illegal to mark, tag, or fin clip fish and return them to the water, there seems to be quite a few anglers who do so. In almost every water I fished, from mantua to utah lake and especially on community ponds, there are fish with obvious human made marks. Most times, I think someone was bored and istic or intentionally abusing the fish. The most common marks I've seen are rows of parallel knife marks on the flanks of the fish......they are carefully carved to take off the scales but don't really cut into the flesh except in a few cases. Just skin deep pocket knife scratches. Some people descale small patches in white bass, lmb, trout, and bluegill, then make the parallel knife marks. Some other fish will have these same marks but here's the worst part.....some idiots will dig a round deep hole right into the back or sides of the fish leaving a bloody sore. I've even seen initials along with the parallel knife marks. One time I saw an obsence word written right onto the flank of an unfortunate crappie. It's surprising what one sees sometimes. All kinds of people out there.

Just from my experience, I have caught and released many tout, mostly small planters.

If I am fishing with a lure that has a treble hook, I have often caught a fish that has one hook in the mouth and has had one of the other hooks on the treble hook lodged in the facial area. Some of these are in the immediate area of the eye.


If there is no apperant damage that may prove fatal, I usually release the catch.

I am betting that this is the case with your fish, but I havn't been to Fish Lake for 10 years or more!!!

I am glad to hear that there are healthy 1 eyed fish that are surviving a catch and release!!!

Let me know what you think about my C&R!!!!

Phatdaddy
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Fins get rubbed down in the concrete hatcheries.
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