4.5 lb Trout -- Splake or Brook Trout?

[fisher39]

Whoever made the post about "lurkers" can take credit for this post...

Attached are some pictures of a 4.5 lb fish that may or may not be a Brook Trout that probably should not have been filleted so soon. It was caught Labor Day Weekend by my girlfriend (now fiancee) on a rod propped between her legs while she read (and I rowed and fished).

While it certainly looks a lot like a Brook Trout, the colors were kind of dull and the tail wasn't completely square. The lake has plenty of Brook Trout and Lake Trout, and isn't stocked. However, it ultimately flows into a body of water about 10-15 miles away that is stocked with Splake, and there are no barriers between the two waterbodies, so it isn't completely out of the question that it could be a Splake.

The other fish in one of the pictures is a 2 lb Lake Trout. What does everyone think?

[Gray Ghost]

That looks like a laker or splake because of the forked tail. Nice fish, anyway!

[Boreal Chickadee]

Nice fish and congratulations on the engagement and best wishes for a long and happy marriage!

[fisher39]

She's a keeper -- she even loved being up in the Adirondacks in May when the blackflies were at their peak.

The fish definitely wasn't a straight laker (we ended up with a few others, including a 5.5 lb one for reference that evening), and the pronounced white fin edges and red were far more distinctive from what I have ever seen on a lake trout. I'd buy that it was a splake, however (although I read somewhere that the only way to know for sure is to count something in the guts). Has anyone heard of the hybrid occuring in the wild? If it did indeed migrate from where Splake are stocked it would make me wonder about any exceptionally big "Brook Trout" that aren't in waters that are totally isolated by waterfalls or barriers from places where Splake are stocked.

[trouthunter]

Looks like a splake to me.
You have to tell us EXACTLY where you were fishing and what you caught it on to be absolutely sure. LOL
Cograts on all your recent catches!

[fisher39]

I am sorry to say they weren't my catches! I caught a 5+ lb lake trout once in thousands of hours of fishing the lakes, and her first night she catches all those fish sitting there reading a book. Needless to say she wasn't invited up for hunting season, as nice as it would be to see some B&C buck hanging outside of camp. As for the location, um, yeah, although I saw some posts in here in favor of disclosing fishing hot spots I'll continue to do my "lurking" in that department.

After checking out that picture of the new state record and a few other pictures of big Brook Trout, I agree that it definitely looks like a Splake. I was thinking that maybe the size (and presumably age) of the fish were the reason that the mottling and the red and blue spots were barely visible, but they are quite clear on that state record fish that weighed just about that the same. And none of the other Brook Trout had any sort of fork in their tails. Now I can feel a lot better about us having eaten the thing after no more than a few pictures and some show-and-tell!

[Boreal Chickadee]

her first night she catches all those fish sitting there reading a book.

Many moons ago I while pregnant I used to love to fish in the trout streams of the CAtskills. Well being rather large of belly, I would get tired and not want to follow my then husband up the stream. So I would find a log that straddled the stream and plop my fanny down with only a worm or two nestled in the moss of the log. Well of course you know where this is leading. I always got my limit of trout, soaking up the sun on a comfortable log while someone else came back with considerably fewer fish! But I'd have to keep tearing that worm into smaller and smaller pieces to make it last.

Moral of the story: Never underestimate the power of a pregnant woman with one worm.

[trouthunter]

The forked tail gives it away,brookies are nicknamed squaretails.Those are some nice fish in your pics. I hope Im as lucky ice fishing on Limekiln lake this winter (good spot for Splake).

[wildbrookies]

Hi All,
I was lucky a few years ago(ice-fishing w/ my brother)to hook and ice two splakes.One was 18" and the other 16"....and they looked alot like a laker,but they fought crazy and never seemed to tire out....upon zipping them open to clean ,they had the most beautiful colored meat....a reddish orange and were magnificent on the grill....other than that the only other way I figured they were splakes was because, there were`nt suppose to be any lakers in that body of water.They both have the basic laker colors and forked tail....maybe the splake has a more brilliant color and sharper white out- line on the orange fins like a big brookie.....interesting topic....

Wildbrookies

[fisher39]

Peanut Butter, I think the significant others of "serious" fishermen should put together a book of stories about effortlessly trouncing the "serious" fisherman at his own game -- I know it happens a lot and there is a huge audience for it!

I'll have to let people know about the splake -- at least one other "Brook Trout" of similar size was caught and released last spring. I have caught thousands of brookies but have never paid much attention to the tail, although I knew they are called "square-tails" -- I'll have to start paying attention when I am fishing in that lake.

The flesh of the fish was that deep orangish red that Brook Trout with a thing for crayfish have, like wildbrookies' fish were -- all of the Lake Trout I have caught (there and elsewhere) have been a very pale pink.