2022/2023 Ice Challenge - joatmon

[hookngrinin]

Hey, good pair from Newton...

Largemouth bass - 12
Black crappie - 11.5

[joatmon]

Flaming Gorge
1/21/23

Lake trout - 21”

[hookngrinin]

Pup on the board! And 13 species now! 

Lake trout - 21

[joatmon]

Starvation Reservoir
1/28/23

Rainbow Trout - 21”

Walleye - 13.5”

[hookngrinin]

Those look familiar. That's a fat Starvation Steeley...

Rainbow trout - 21

Walleye - 13.5

[joatmon]

Highland Glen Park Pond

2/2/23


Brook trout - 12 inches

Channel catfish - 20.5 inches

[hookngrinin]

another one over 20"!

Brook trout - 12
Channel catfish - 20.5

[joatmon]

Rule 7 Lake
2/10/23

Northern Pike - 29 inches

[hookngrinin]

Well done, Brett. 16 species now and longest "Predator"...

Northern pike - 29

[joatmon]

Willard Bay
2/18/23

Yellow Perch - 12 inches

[hookngrinin]

Yellow perch - 12

[joatmon]

Fish Lake 
3/4/23

Splake - 16 inches

[SkunkedAgain]

Pretty Fish Brett, congrats on #17, that's way impressive... Jeff

[hookngrinin]

Very nice! and another specie....

Splake - 16

[joatmon]

Bear Lake
3/11/2023


Sucker - 22 inches

Bonneville Whitefish - 18 inches

Bear Lake Whitefish - 9.5 inches (I researched this quite a bit and posting as a separate species, but okay if not)

Bear Lake "Rock Fish" - 3.5 inches, "caught" three of these critters on the rock pile, LOL

[EyLayo]

Curious what differences between the two whitefish your research turned up? I had the thought earlier this year but, I haven't taken the time to look into it very deeply.

[joatmon]

Curious what differences between the two whitefish your research turned up? I had the thought earlier this year but, I haven't taken the time to look into it very deeply.

I looked at a few different resources, none very definitive and no actual photos I could find. Most, including the Utah fishing guidebook, says the Bear Lake strain doesn’t get longer than 10 inches.  From there, it seems there was contradicting information about if they have spots (at all or only up to 10 inches), or if they can even be distinguished. Some say the BL strain has a little more of a Roman nose, and they never have spots along the sides. However, I also read that it is difficult to differentiate them absolutely unless you catch a BL whitefish during its spawn (with eggs?).  IDK, but that fish looked different than the others - more of a split tail and the fins were lighter color. I just don’t have enough experience with them yet.

[SkunkedAgain]

Scott told me that they have to take the scales and put them under a microscope to do a for sure distinguishing of the two, so I think it must be pretty hard to tell them apart. He told me that the best way to tell a Bonneville is they are the big ones... The small fish could be either species.. I did catch a lot of small ones the size of cisco this year, that had the roman nose though.... You may be onto something there... Congrats on the 20 species, that's a great feat to accomplish... Jeff

[hookngrinin]

Great Bear Lake collection! Those Bear Lake rockfish probably fight a lot like Starvation walleye... Very impressive collection for the season!

Utah sucker - 22
Bonneville whitefish - 18
Bear Lake whitefish - 9.5