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Well my stanley trip this year like anyother year was an adventure. Didnt make it up there tell late but family had held me a spot at sockey campground and let me tell you they have redone them completly and they are great. they are cemented around the fire pits so no more dirt in your tents. but the new speedbumps are huge!!! So huge my cousin who is in a wheelchair and has a element with lowered floors for his ramp couldnt get it in there. So we stayed there for the first 2 days.

Sunday morning i woke up and we went down by the bridge below the hatchery to let the kids fish a bit for some planters. You could see the salmon in there thick so i decided to throw a hook with some salmon eggs and see what happened i only cast maybe 3 times and hooked into one.... 8lb test actualy landed him but boy oh boy there were times i didnt think it would. Never got a pic didnt want to take her out of the water. We could see some sockeye in the water they were red and very visable.
That night we went to the inlet of redfish to try for some bulltrout. we only stayed about a hour. we caught alot of 1 lb bulls but they all looked sick. they had huge heads and snakey bodies. We decided to head to Alturis. It was a good choice the fish there looked alot better and were fat as a cows. We landed several around 3lb and i got one i figured to be around 6. Has anyone else caught the fish in redfish and thought the same thing? I thought last year they didnt look very good but this year they looked horrible to me.
On the way home we went and picked fresh water clams... but looks like this will be the last year we do that. Family has gone to this spot for over 40 years and we have always had access and used a public acess point as we did this year but when we got back to the truck we had the sherrif and forman waiting for us.. Long story short he hadnt posted the acess point but it sounded like a lady has bought it and is closing it all off. This makes 3 of my favorite fishing holes or areas to go that have been closed off. I realy hate to see this happen but i guesse not much i can do about it.

Monday- Wend. my wifes family came up and they had some spots at Stanley lake so had to take down camp and move over there. If your looking for a quiet lake thats the one. I only seen 4 boats on the lake in those 3 days and only 1 of them was playing with the skies and tubes and the other 3 were trolling, i never did fish stanley but had a great time at camp. We went down to the hatchery on monday and tuesday to watch them check the traps they had 4 sockeye both days at the sawtooth trap, and they had 17 at the redfish trap on tuesday. There was a man from a Seatle radio station there taking pictures of the fish. he did a interview with me about them. I took some pictures of them but they are on my fatherinlaws camera so cant post them so sorry. I couldnt help but feel special about them though. How far they have come sense Lonsome Larry a few years ago.

I talked with the f&g officer from the eagle hatchery were they are taking the sockeye he told me that all but probly 50 of them will end up being returned into redfish lake to spawn. He said they have about 300 broodstock there at the eagle hatchery and thats how they have been getting eggs he said they will only keep enough fish to replentish those and to release some fry and egg boxs i asked him why they dont spawn all the eggs he said they dont have anywere atm to put the eggs and fry. I sure hope this changes and they can get a hatchery for them. I thought after last years higher return they proposed a new hatchery for them anyone know anything about this.

I also heard them say that this years chinnok season was the 2nd most productive season sense they have alowed one on the salmon.

I never did get my goldentrout we didnt have a babysitter until tuesday and that happened to be my wifes birthday and didnt want to drag her on a all day hike. Here is a pic of my big bull and a couple of my brotherinlaws. there is a pic of a 4 point outside of camp not sure how well you can see him. I got a awsome pic of stanley lake and the mountain with the fog lifting that i will post after i get it from my fatherinlaw its a amazing pic.
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Great report and pics. Looks like you had a great trip. I have never caught a Bull Trout. I guess that is another place I will have to put on my list. My wife went there every year as a kid to camp. She wants to take our kids sometime.

Windriver
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Where are these places that you are talking about? I want to take a trip and see the Salmon and catch some bulltrout!
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stanley idaho. the lakes are all in that area and the hatchery is about 7 miles upstream on the salmon river.
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Awesome report and pics! I'd love to see the sockeyes. The fish in the second picture looks like a bull/brooke trout hybrid. The way I was taught to tell the difference is the dorsal fin, bull trout don't have any markings on the dorsal, brookies have little wormy lines, and the hybrids have spots. Thanks again for the report bull's are my favorite native fish, I think I'm going to have to make a trip up there next year, it sounds like a blast!
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i believe its still a bulltrout i could be wrong and have never knowingly seen a brook/bull mix but from what i have read the hybrids have lines up on there back and on there dorsal fins.

http://fwp.mt.gov/bulltroutid/training/training16.htm
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That's cool, you certainly got a better look at it than I did, and I'm by no means an expert, I just think it's interesting like I said I love bull trout and it's cool to see nice ones like that
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that one was alot lighter than the rest of them not sure why but like i said i have never personaly seen a hybrid and dont know if i would be able to tell the diffrence. it doesnt look like there is much of a diff
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Either way some very cool fish, and a species I still need to catch.
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