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I did not have anything to do with this catch, I don't even know these people. Strawberry Marina posted this pic on their Facebook page and it made me super curious. I'm not an expert by any means, but I was under the impression that Strawberry on held cutts, rainbows, Kokanee, and maybe the occasional brown that comes in from Currant Creek.
Can anybody with more knowledge than me help lend an explanation to this picture? It appears to be a Splake or Brook on the left.
I've also heard of people catching small mouth there, can anyone verify that?
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[#0000FF]Your picture did not show up so can't verify for sure. Is it possible you checked the "inline" box without doing the rest of what is necessary to make the picture appear in your post. If so, just uncheck the inline box and we can look at the attachment.
I can tell you that there used to be more than a few brookies in Strawberry. Not out of the question that a few survived in some of the feeder creeks over the years...or got accidentally mixed into a hatchery planting.
There are also a few stray browns and a few tigers that show up once in a while.
And yes, there have been smallmouths caught from Strawberry. They are doubtless plants by bucket bozos. And they will never take over the lake because it is not hospitable to smallmouths. The growing season and food supply situation makes it tough for them to survive past their first year.
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Where's the pic?
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Trying the pic again. Sorry about that I'm trying to do it from my phone.
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Looks like a splake to me.
A brook would have red belly right??
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I've caught a few brooks without all the flashy colors, but again I'm no expert. I just like reeling in the slimy buggers. Hahaha
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There are a few Brookies in there. I caught one back in 96 on a fly rod and showed it to a Biologist at the visitor center. He confirmed it was a Brook trout and said he had heard of a few others. He thought they came from the feeder creeks that empty into the Berry. Below is a few pics of it.
Mark
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That's awesome man.
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Looks like a splake to me too. One heck of a brookie though if that is what it really is.
I don't care how much you know about the two species, brookies and splake... there are cases where it can be downright impossible to tell from looking at them what is what. That is usually the exception to the rule... but every once in awhile there disagreement between very knowledgeable groups of people on brookie vs splake.
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Whatever it is,I wish there were lots more in there!
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[#0000FF]Always tough to make a positive ID on any fish from a photo of a photo. But based on the squared shape of the tail it looks more brookie-ish. Splake tend to have a bit of a fork in their tails...inherited from the lake trout side of the family. Check the photo.
[inline SPLAKE.jpg]
It is also more likely that the fish is a brook trout descended from downstream migrations of brookies from the feeder streams to Strawberry. A splake is a hybrid that could have only reached the lake by DWR plantings. Not as likely. And there have been more than a few brookies caught and identified over the years.
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[quote TubeDude][#0000FF]Always tough to make a positive ID on any fish from a photo of a photo. But based on the squared shape of the tail it looks more brookie-ish. Splake tend to have a bit of a fork in their tails...inherited from the lake trout side of the family. Check the photo.
It is also more likely that the fish is a brook trout descended from downstream migrations of brookies from the feeder streams to Strawberry. A splake is a hybrid that could have only reached the lake by DWR plantings. Not as likely. And there have been more than a few brookies caught and identified over the years.
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Based on the above reasons, I thought the fish looked like a splake. Also, though the pic isn't great, it appears that the fish is missing characteristic red spots with blue halos. I say splake!
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Looks a lot like a big female brookie. Caught a lot of the sterile females out of Henry's lake in Idaho and they won't have much if any belly color. Silver bullets and halos. Looking at the tail and the subtle notch I would lean more towards spoke than brook.
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Why would Brook Trout scare the UDWR? They've been in Strawberry for decades and haven't amounted to much. There's never very many of them caught, and they don't seem to present a problem. Mostly just taking up a tiny fraction of the biomass of a huge fishery.
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[quote Fishrmn]Why would Brook Trout scare the UDWR?[#8000ff][/#8000ff][/quote]
Because government conspiracy theories are much more fun than "just another day at work".
that fish is a splake.
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The UDWR seems to Scare and then overreact quite often. Like Northern Pike in Utah Lake.
Been there for decades and haven't amounted to much. There's never very many of them caught, and they don't seem to present a problem. Mostly just taking up a tiny fraction of the biomass of a huge fishery.
Catch and Kill Regulations.
Or Northern Pike Yuba,
Been there for decades and haven't amounted to much. There's never very many of them caught, and they don't seem to present a problem. Mostly just taking up a tiny fraction of the biomass of a huge fishery. Lets overreact and kill them all with a limit intended to do just that.
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