Elijah.Loves.Fishin
2/14/2011 6:52:00 PM:) more to come as the weather warms up! i completely splurged this winter of buying a ton of stuff for bass fishing :D
Elijah.Loves.Fishin
2/17/2011 11:19:00 PMi'm sorry but you're wrong. clearly you're not the trout master. it's a cutthroat, end of story. the only reason you probably say that is because you don't see the orange flare by it's "cutthroat" in the picture but it was there clear as day. plus the shape and size of their jaw / mouth is bigger than a rainbow and their teeth are bigger and very sharp. please keep your ignorant comments to yourself. typically i would just delete it but i'll leave it here as an example of what i despise.
Gringo Pescador
2/18/2011 10:44:00 AMElijah - The note above the comment section reads: "Please Note: No HTML allowed. We appreciate it when fellow anglers share their opinions, techniques, fishing holes and all around fishing knowledge. That being said, we do not appreciate negative or threatening comments posted anywhere on our site. If you have something negative to say, please keep it to yourself"............ The way I see it, Trout Master gave his opinion and a compliment to boot - your slamming and calling names is uncalled for. If you don't like a comment - delete it. If you feel it is threatening or you are being harassed, PM myself or one of the other mods and we will get involved. For the record from the picture and the fact that I have never heard of cuts being in Ballinger I figured it was a rainbow too. Not sayin you were wrong, or it is not a cut, just my opinion.
Elijah.Loves.Fishin
2/18/2011 11:05:00 AMi have been talking with the locals who have fished there for over 30 years and the cutts run through ballinger every winter. they've been catching them since late november until now. my response was in no way threatening, merely a response to what i felt was a disrespectful comment to me, questioning my knowledge on fish and trying to tell me i'm wrong. but i can respect your concerns, it won't happen again.
Elijah.Loves.Fishin
2/18/2011 1:25:00 PMif you look on google maps, lake ballinger is connected directly to lake washington. the locals tell me some years they catch a ton of bluegill and pumpkinseeds while some years they don't catch any at all. so apparently fish travel between ballinger and lake washington frequently.
Trout Master
2/18/2011 7:30:00 PMYes ballinger does drain into lake Washington, But the barriers at the I-5 interchage have blocked fish passage. Cutts have never been planted there. From your picture it looks like a normal rainbow plant from last year.
Elijah.Loves.Fishin
2/18/2011 10:29:00 PMsorry for the rudeness trout master, that wasn't like me. i could blame the frustrating day i had but i won't, i should have handled it better. however, i assure you, it is a cutthroat, the locals have been catching them consistently all winter long but rarely encounter them in the spring and summer where rainbows are caught pretty much all year long. i have caught rainbows for years and knew this was a cutthroat even before i pulled it up the dock. i saw the orange flares on it's throat even before i lifted it out of the water. i personally haven't seen the i-5 interchange so i can't say whether or not is is blocked for sure, but it seems that the fish can go back and forth. one of the locals has seen a couple smallmouth come out of the lake and caught 1 himself, but it was only a couple smallmouth in 30+ years. doesn't make sense to me that the cutts show up in winter, disappear in spring, and the bluegills / pumpkinseeds show up some years and not others. ballinger is also connected to hall lake up north so that's where they could be coming from as well.
Snoop
3/14/2011 7:19:00 PMAfter doing some research, I do believe fish can access Lake Ballinger via McAleer Creek. It is diverted, and not overly fish friendly, but I-5 does not completely cut off fish access. I think it is completely possible for cuts to make it up to lake Ballinger. McAlleer creek has received many face lifts by volunteers to improve fish passage.
Elijah.Loves.Fishin
3/14/2011 9:05:00 PMi've actually met locals that have caught smallmouth out of ballinger as well. it is not cut off, the cutts come through every winter. just because many people haven't heard of it or caught them themselves does not mean they don't come in and out. even if you look at the first picture, you can see the orange by the slits in the throat. try arguing with locals who have caught them for 30 + years..