01-25-2005, 02:33 PM
In discussing Henrys Lake fish, one must split the species up to get an accurate picture.
Cutts should be the most numerous, but the that has not been the case according to the catch rate. There are very few cutts that live to be four years old in Henrys Lake. This comes from several studies in the 1970's and 1980's by Bob Spatholtz of the F & G.
Lynn has the lengths about right but most of the 3 year olds will be from 18 to 22 inches. I really do not believe that there are many pure cutts in the lake because of the cross breeding with the hybrids.
Hybrids are truely the hogs of the lake. I believe that the sterile hybrids are the ones that get very large as they use the food to develope size instead of sex organs. This causes the large fish to look like footballs. The Fish and Game are trying to sterilize all of the hybrids now to protect the cutt strain - which once again is not pure. Look closly at the head of the cutts that you catch - many will have a spot in front of the gill plate which will indicate rainbow blood in that fish.
Brook trout is another story. After not planting them for five or six years, they almost disappeared. But the last two seasons the Fish and Game have started planting them again. This season they actually purchased eggs from Canada to get the needed eggs for stocking. Rarely will a brook trout get over six pounds and the largest recorded brook trout taken from the lake was 7 pounds 1 ounce. In the 50+ years I have fished the lake, the largest brook trout that I have taken was 6-15. They are my preferred fish and I stock them whenever possible.
These are my observations over the years and I have been involved in many of the studies with the Fish and Game. I have also collected and read as many of the studies from that lake that I can get my hands on.
Bill
[signature]
Cutts should be the most numerous, but the that has not been the case according to the catch rate. There are very few cutts that live to be four years old in Henrys Lake. This comes from several studies in the 1970's and 1980's by Bob Spatholtz of the F & G.
Lynn has the lengths about right but most of the 3 year olds will be from 18 to 22 inches. I really do not believe that there are many pure cutts in the lake because of the cross breeding with the hybrids.
Hybrids are truely the hogs of the lake. I believe that the sterile hybrids are the ones that get very large as they use the food to develope size instead of sex organs. This causes the large fish to look like footballs. The Fish and Game are trying to sterilize all of the hybrids now to protect the cutt strain - which once again is not pure. Look closly at the head of the cutts that you catch - many will have a spot in front of the gill plate which will indicate rainbow blood in that fish.
Brook trout is another story. After not planting them for five or six years, they almost disappeared. But the last two seasons the Fish and Game have started planting them again. This season they actually purchased eggs from Canada to get the needed eggs for stocking. Rarely will a brook trout get over six pounds and the largest recorded brook trout taken from the lake was 7 pounds 1 ounce. In the 50+ years I have fished the lake, the largest brook trout that I have taken was 6-15. They are my preferred fish and I stock them whenever possible.
These are my observations over the years and I have been involved in many of the studies with the Fish and Game. I have also collected and read as many of the studies from that lake that I can get my hands on.
Bill
[signature]