Big Headed Trout

[blackfoot]

In the last couple of weeks i have been fishing 4 different lakes in the central cascades.About 75% of my catch have been Cutts/Rainbows the rest Brooks.The numbers caught are great (50-75) but the problem is that all the trout are skinny!The trout look like 3-4 +year old fish,10-16" long but their bodies look like they should be on 8" fish and the heads have large jaws and look out of proportion.

The Brook trout look fine;they are nice fish in good condition.The Brooks are out of the same lakes.

I'm from Montana and haven't seen this over there and am wondering what the problem is w/ these fish?Are they stunted form over crowding?Should i take some of these fish to help improve the watershed?Is this a common problem in the cascades? Thanks.

[jmay]

I grew up on the east slopes of the "north central" Cascades, and fished them on a daily basis until the feds shut them down with the ESA to protect chinooks and dolly's (sore subject for me).

The rivers should only have cutts, dolly varden, and mnt whitefish. Seasonally a few winter run steelhead, and salmon during the spawn in mid Sept. Personally if you are on the east slopes and you are POSSITIVE they are brookies and not small Dolly Varden kill them and grill them! I am a 99% C&R but brookies do not belong in east slope rivers

[The Quadfather]

I believe you said that you were fishing alpine lakes in the cascades. I grew up fishing in those types of areas. It was almost always my observation that alpine lk. trout were both more skinny and more aggresive for their size than lowland lake trout. I kind of viewed that as that those lakes are frozen over for such a portion of the year that I think the fish don't feed as well/often as down here. I also think that maybe that is why they are more aggresive too, as to when they do get an oppurtunity to go after your bait.

I'm no biologist, I just carry a fishing pole.