Northwest Fishing Reports

This is from a WY forum I belong to thought I would share...
Big laker from WY

My lord ..What kind of fish is it.? Looks like a grouper or a Burbot.

It is a makana aka Lake Trout.... Caught here in WY:cheers:

Thats a laker Monster! There must be an underwater Mcdonalds down there. Look for golden arches on the graph!

Man that makes me miss wyo more. I moved from there 2 yrs ago and would catch monster trout. (nothing like that tho)
Great state.

Lake trout get massive. We get requests a lot to stock them here and we are like...uh...nooooo.

For folks who might not know it, they are here in our state. Certainly most have you have prob. seen Anton Jones' reports from Lake Chelan. I did a trip with him last year.

Yeah, but we don't want them down here!

Wanted to add, when they get larger they are so voracious - one of the main reason we don't want them in our lakes.

Aren't they trying to get rid of them in Lake Pend'Orielle for the same reason?

Very possible - I have not heard, but it wouldn't surprise me!

That trout is a BEAST!!! thanks for showing us

I used to live in Wyoming, and during the makinaw mating season, you'd see large fish jumping all over the lake...but none biting. We fished anyway, hoping to hook into one of those lunkers!

But your fish, dude, is a monster among monsters. WOW!

Why dont they put them into the resovoirs. Or at least merwin. There is enough pressure in that lake to keep the population under control.

You would think that, but they are veracious predators with high rates of recruitment and can decimate whole populations in short order. Stocking Lakers into our reservoirs would be like purposely stocking Walleye into Lake Washington.

Marc Martyn wrote:Aren't they trying to get rid of them in Lake Pend'Orielle for the same reason?

Yes, and Priest Lake was once a target to get rid of them to. Once they get a foot hold, the best you can do is try to thin them down.

Someone put them in Yellowstone Lake, WY, and the Feds are frustrated to say the least. The Yellowstone Cut was once considered a prolific fish, tons and tons of them in Yellowstone Lake, but the lakers/Macks have sure thinned them out.

Well at least in Merwin. The only fish in there that would be affected is Koke/trout. The sqaws would keep them from keeping to big and the tigermusky. Just my two cent. But again i dont know to much about lake trout.

flyfisher31 wrote:Well at least in Merwin. The only fish in there that would be affected is Koke/trout. The sqaws would keep them from keeping to big and the tigermusky. Just my two cent. But again i dont know to much about lake trout.

Lakers go real deep, far deeper then tigers so the two would seldom even see each other. Squaws, AKA Pikeminnow, also go deep and they are target often by Lakers. The oily nature of the Pikeminnow would cause the Lakers to grow fast.

In the spring, fall, and winter, lakers and kokes and trout are in the same water column, so as a result, Lakeres would hammer them. In Deep Creek in NorthEast Washington, the Lakers almost keep the trout extinct. In Priest Lake in Idaho, and also in Pend'Orielle, the Lakers have pretty much eaten themselves out of house and home. The Kokes are all but gone in Pend'Orielle, the trout are suffering, the Cutts and Kokes in Priest are all but gone.

Still, don't get me wrong, I love to catch Lakers, and I enjoy eating the 3 to 5 pounders as well.