Fishing Forum

What an awesome weekend. Pulled the trailer and boat down to Chesterfield this weekend(All I need was a rocking chair in the boat and I would have looked like the Beverly Hillillies. Got there about 5:30 p.m., started setting up camp and my old man grabbed for a rod. He had a 4lb. on in the first ten minutes and landed 7 before dark, all from the bank.

I was excited though to start trolling in the morning. In a day and a half, the two of us landed about 75 fish and probably lost half that many. INSANE. I hooked into my first toad about noon and lost him with an audience right in front of the dock. Yes believe it or not I lost one bigger than the 7lb that I caught. We ended up keeping 8 fish, all over 5 lbs. Here are a few pictures.

Happy fishing.
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Sounds like a fantastic trip and some trophy's to boot [cool]
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NICE! How do the fish taste this time of year and that big? I am due for my Yearly Trout feast...LOL
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These fish are full of snails, my wife won't let me fillet them in the house because of strong smell. But they are some of the best tasting fish I eat. The fillets off those fish were huge, I like to soak in lemon for an hour before I barbecue. I see a lot of pontoons and float tubes on Chesterfield and they always seem to do very well. I'd love to see you hook up with one of those big bad boys and have it drag you all over the lake!
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The biggest I have caught there was around that 26" mark. They do pull but they don't run far like Carp do.
I tried eating a nice big one out of Daniels and it tasted like mud, so I was wondering about my other favorite water[]
Hopefully I will make it up this year and I will give you a shout, k?
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Nope, they don't taste like mud at all. One thing of note also, my dad landed a hybrid Cuttbow of about 18 inches. After catching Kamloops all the time, this is the first time I have ever caught anything different in that lake. It was a beautiful fish and will live to be caught again. I also thought you might be interested in a discussion I had with two fish and game officers about those Kamloops. They said that yes, the fish in Chesterfield are the sterile Kamloops, but not all that are put in are sterile. There will be hybrid Kamloops that also get put in and they can actually reproduce. We caught two off the ugliest males you have ever seen. Huge hook jaws and battle scars all over them. Must be those hybrids they were talking about.
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Or a survivor of the birds and low water, or even hatchery scars?
Like I said, I know there is a difference, but I can't tell.
Daniels is suppose to be stocked with Kams as well.
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Them cutbows are not cutbows they are still just a plain kamloops that got mixed up in the hatchery. Rainbows some times have a orange slash, and get easily mistaken for a cutbow. But i.assure you there are no cutbows in chesterfield. There are two type if fish in there that are stocked. Tripolde kamloops and domestic kamloops. A few years Whitney put Henry cuthroat in there, and in 98 they put browns in.there which can still be caught if you are lucky.them kamloops stocked at 6-8 inches reach 18 inches in.first year of.being stocked. They a a freak fish.
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Oh and according to F&G the fish stocked in early spring are expected to be 18" by winter.
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There very easily could be cuttbows, pure cutts, fertile bows, and browns in Chesterfield besides the stocked Kamloops. They are in the streams that feed Chesterfield and some of them come down. There probably aren't many of them though. I have also caught chubs in Chesterfield.

On the other hand rainbows occasionally develop an orange "cutt" slash and even other colorings. They are still rainbows and may not have any cutthroat dna.
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Last time I went tere I caught 6 with the slash and they were all in spawn color all big. I talked to Dave he said very slim chance for a cutbow out of there.
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It is a slim chance, but it is about the same chance as catching the browns, and I have seen them.

A few spread among the thousands of stocked Kams. They can be there, since there is nothing blocking them from coming down the creeks..

Going up the creek from Chesterfield is how browns got in the creeks, they weren't stocked there. For the browns, cutts, rainbows, and cuttbows to come back down the creek is probably easier for them than swimming up.

I think the chance of catching them is a little better if you are fishing near one of the inlets when it is getting close to spawning as it is now.

It is the same at Deep Cr. Cutts aren't stocked there, but they are caught in the lake, because there is a native cutt population in the inlet creeks.
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Glad you did well. I fished there a little over the week end and didn't have much luck. Bank yanked between the outhouse and the dam for about 6 hours with not even a bite.

Float tubed for about 3-4 hours and had one fish, a beautiful 19ish rainbow that put up a great fight and broke off my fly in a last ditch effort to dive between my legs and wrap around my fins.

Also fished 24 mile a bit and hooked into only a couple fish. Landed one that was about 17ish.

Fished a bit on the Portneuf and also on Toponce creek. Toponce was a real treat. Small fish, but very fiesty and eager to bite. My wife caught a beautiful 13-14 inch cut. I only landed one fish out of the Portneuf but it was picture worthy. All our fish went back in to be caught another day.

Did you catch that at the lower access? That sure looks like the lower access. Amazing a brown came out of there if so.
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Not sure what it was called, but it was just up river from town about 1-2 miles (first sportsman's access). I've caught Browns there before, but not usually this quality. They are usually smaller. I wish I could have used bait, I think I could've caught more. I've also caught cuts over 20 inches there in the past, although I admit it has been a very long time (~15 years).
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Looks like you had a good time. Beautiful brown. Was the gate open on Toponce?
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No. Had to walk in, but it wasn't too far to get past the private ground. The signage at the gate indicated it should be opened starting tomorrow.
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No, the walk isn't too far. I was just curious if they had opened it early. Didn't think they would!
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Yeah thats lower access. Not many browns come out of there any more ive fished the heck out of it and have only caught a couple.mostly little 8-10 inch planter bows.
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Sorry Taz. I guess I should've started my own thread. I didn't mean to highjack your thread. Next time I head to Chesterfield I'm going to have to get some pointers from you. We got our heinnies handed to us by the fish. I would've loved to get into even a dozen or so, but it was not to be.

C P, Boy am I glad there was a turn around near the gate. What would a guy do if he pulled a trailer in there? That would be brutal trying to back a trailer to a point where you could turn around.
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