So you may remember that on July 17 I caught a big trout out of Chesterfield with a tag in it. I just received a letter from F&G with the growth rate results. I thought you guys and gals would appreciate this. So when I caught him he was 23.75 inches long. He was released on June 24, 2014 and he was 10.179 inches long. In two years that fish roughly grew 7 inches a year.....wow, that's pretty incredible. I would have thought that fish would have been at least one if not two years older. They have great feed in that lake. They are just full of snails. Have any of you sent in tags from other lakes or rivers? How do the growth rates compare to Chesterfield?
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Sounds like Minidoka growth rates. A friend caught a tagged fish in early November of 2014 that weighted three pounds 14 oz. and was released Oct 9th 2013 that was 9.5". By the following Sept that fish would have been over six pounds. With adequate water Chesterfield is certainly a trophy lake unlike places like Daniels where the fish the growth is really slow even though they have restrictions on length and no bait, barless hooks etc quality fish are rare.
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That's an interesting observation about Daniels and I think your right on.
I have fished Daniels a lot over the last 17 years and I have caught larger fish, and more of them at neighboring Deep Creek Reservoir which is a general regulation water except for the two cutthroat limit.
The fish in Daniels must know they aren't supposed to get over 20" or it's tap city.[
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So i zipped down for an afternoon fish on Chesterfield Wednesday afternoon. It was sweltering out there. No bugs on the lake, no birds, no fisherman and no bites. Until the sun dropped behind the mountains and it was like a dinner bell was rang. We hooked five in a half hour all ranging in that three to three and a half range. The bad part is that they are sucking the water down quickly now and the edges are stinky and swampy. You should have seen the cloud of mosquitoes. By the time I got the boat on the trailer I had probably been tagged 50 times. I hauled the boat a mile down the road before I pulled over to strap everything down thinking I would get away from the mosquitoes. They were worse. In my nose, in my mouth....When I got back in the truck there were hundreds in the truck. Headed down the interstate with all windows down trying to chase those blood suckers out. Haven't seen them that bad since I was a kid. Will most likely wait till fall to hit again.
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Them would be Dave's pride and joy, they are a hybrid they have been playing with for years super fast growth rates.
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Not a fan of the mosquito's as I have not seen them bad like that. How high is the lake and is the water clear like it used to always be except the last two years in the upper end this time of year? Not a lot of options with Henry's being the worst in 50 years Clark Canyon similarly bad and Island Park also on a terrible downward trend the last 7 or 8 years. Guess I will stick with my home waters.
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The water looked like pea soup when I was there. My finder said 77 degrees also. Pretty warm. Tried to not even handle fish, just reach over side and pop lure out. They get stressed quickly when that warm.
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Thanks it must be real low to look that bad typically after being totally full like this year the water in the upper end has four or five feet visibility this time of year, you saved me a trip.
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