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I've been fishing yellowstone lake for 25 years now and I've shared a few trips on here the last few years. I'm sharing again because if most of you are like me, getting away from the crowds is almost as important as finding fish!
Yes it's a little bit of a hassle but i promise it's worth it.
tips: only a few camp sites on the lake will allow beaching or tying up your boat...request/reserve yours early.. like Feb before season opens. you can always camp in island park or hebgen lake - short distance outside of park.
boat permit/inspection required, park fishing license required. offices inside park that do this open 8am and usually close at 4pm. no bait, no barbs, no plastics, no lead... however you can use a downrigger ball and leaded line to get down deep of needed. In June, both the cutthroat and lake trout can be found in 30 fow or less. use your favorite spoon or spinner, i promise you'll catch fish - all quality fish too!
take it or leave it - there's some info - go out and enjoy!
here's a few pics from the three trips in June
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Thanks for sharing a great report and pictures .
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Ironrod, always look forward to your park report and pics!
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[  ][cool]
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[quote ironrod][ ][cool][/quote]
Don't tell me that pink meat was a Mackinaw.
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I caught one just like that, as far as the meat color, several years ago at Flaming Gorge. I had never seen a Mackinaw with meat that color before and one of the guys on here explained it was caused by the diet of the fish. I guess from what he said, most Mackinaw switch over to a only eating other fish when they reach a certain size but some never switch and continue to eat freshwater shrimp, flies, etc. Mackinaw that never switch to a fish diet have that color flesh, those that do switch, their flesh is white, at least that was what I was told.
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I have yet to see one that doesn't have white meat. But I admit that I have not kept very many.
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LOL, me too, I only kept the one because it swallowed the hook and was bleeding to bad to survive but it was smaller than the one in the pic above.
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Every single Mackinaw that comes out of that Lake looks like this I had a picture from a few years ago but I had 50 of these buggers filleted out beautiful 50 fish all bright orange[cool][ ]
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Out of all the lake trout I've caught in the 25 years there there have only been two with fish inside of their bellies all of the others were full of scuds bright orange scuds/shrimp
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Maybe it is just that lake but from my experience with lakers, that is uncommon. It that the lake that is trying to kill off the lake trout?
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you're right that it depends on the lake/diet. yes, they are trying to kill off the lake trout on yellowstone. lewis lake down the road the smaller lake trout have white flesh. flathead lake in NW montana most macks have bright orange flesh as well...although once in a while one will have white flesh.
the macks out of Yellowstone are delicious!
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With the color of meat, I can imagine they are very tasty. What is the biggest lake trout that you have caught at Yellowstone lake? Not sure it is still in effect but I read that there was a bounty on the lake trout at Flathead lake.
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biggest landed 15#s, we've had a few others i believe were bigger but came off as we were trying to net them. Flathead has a 50 fish limit on macks
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I fished Payette Lake for over 50 years for macks, and I released all but one 32 pounder to mount, and as a teen, baked a 10 pounder. After that meal, I swore never again. Not just bad, but horrible. Just a few weeks ago, we fished Priest Lake, and cooked our catch, and it was much redder meat than Payette, and was excellent eating. That 32 pounder from Payette had 3 10" kokes in it, one perch, and a handful of bones! The Priest Lake fish feed almost exclusively on shrimp. Also, the Priest Lake fish were smaller. I am sure that the combination of size and diet explains the difference in taste. Ironrod, thanks so much for your reports. I have always enjoyed them. I need to get over there. So, did you catch many macks? Wondering if the fishing is slow or fast. l Mike
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sounds about right... I've heard from a lot of fisherman anything over 20# tends to not taste very good. that's a monster catch though.. maybe someday!
No the mack fishing is usually not fast/ furious... however I've had 4 years where 40+ macs landed in a 10 hour day - now that was fun!
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If Yellowstone was much closer I would be all over fishing Yellowstone Lake. I'm so old that I can remember when one didn't need a fishing license to fish anywhere in Yellowstone. Heck, I'm so old I can remember fishing off of Fishing Bridge. Saw many a fish break off with anglers trying to lift them from the water to the bridge.
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