The books all said "splake" would be good for Utah. Studies showed the brooke trout/lake trout hybrid was a winter fish, was easily drawn to shiny lures, and that as a meal, it was delicious.
So far, fishermen have found most of it true. The splake is a winter fish, preferring colder water and winter's food supply. It is also a tasty fish, preferred among the trout family by many fishermen. And it seems to be easily drawn to shiny lures tipped with attractor baits - sometimes.And therein is about the only observation subject to question. Winter fishing at Fish Lake, one of the test lakes for the hybrid fish, has ranged in recent weeks from super hot to lukewarm. Some fishermen have caught 40 splake in a single sitting on the ice, but others have walked off with hardly enough for a meal.
There appears to be no pattern. It can be great one day, OK the next. A fish on every jig one minute, a still line the next couple of hours.
"Right now," said Dale Hepworth, fisheries biologist in the Central Region for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, "Fish Lake is as good as we've got in the region. At times it's hot and at other times it's just not as good. I think it comes down to how well the fishermen know the lake. The better they know it, the better they'll usually do."
Back in 1984, when splake - offspring of a female lake trout and male brook or spotted trout - were put into the high-mountain lake, it was done to develop winter fishing and to ease pressure on the lake trout. Some have argued it did no more than draw more fishermen to the lake and thus put greater pressure on lake trout.
According to Gary Moulton, manager of the Fish Lake Lodge, as many as 200 fishermen have been out drilling holes in the ice on weekends, "and most of them are doing pretty well," he said. "They seem to be catching more fish this year, and the fish seem to be bigger."
Most of the fish being caught are splake. Those, said Hepworth, fishermen can keep. "We're asking them, though, to release the lake trout. There are brochures and posters all around pointing out differences in the fish," he said.
Here's how you tell between the two fish:
- Splake have spots that are round and even, while lake trout have spots of different sizes and shapes and in no set pattern.
- The tail of the splake is more deeply cut in a "V," while that of a lake trout is more of a flattened "U."
- Splake are more of a bluish color, while the lake trout are more silver.
Both, though, will hit on the same lures and baits, and at the same depths and through the same holes.
There have been reports of several 20-pound-plus Macks coming out of Fish Lake in recent weeks, and a fair number of smaller Macks, or "pups," as they are called.
Most of the catches, though, are splake - as planned.
One reason for that, of course, is that splake are a winter fish. In the summer they go deep, where the water is cold, and stay until winter. When ice covers the lake, the splake move up into shallower areas.
Good fishing now ranges from 35 to 80 feet. Sometimes fishing off the bottom is best, but other times the fish are suspended. The secret is to fish at different depths, and from different ice holes, until the action comes. Some of the bigger lake trout have been pulled up from depths of up to 100 feet.
Hepworth suggested fishermen move more than they might normally do.
"I don't know, but it seems that the fish get used to the pressure and after awhile just won't take anything. I'd suggest getting away from some of the crowded areas. Move around and try different spots," he said
That, of course, is where the latest electronic fishing toy has become so important. Fishermen with the on-ice fish finders are able to see if there are fish around, at what depth they are, and how deep the water is. It can, too, give the fishermen a pretty good idea if passing fish are interested in the presentation.
Some of the best results have come from using a one-quarter-ounce "Kastmaster," tipped with a small piece of sucker meat or wax worm. A quarter-ounce "Swedish Pimple" has also brought up fish. Other lures include an "Airplane Jig," platic baits like the "Fat Getzit," and some of the new glow-in-the-dark lures.
Some of the best fishing has been near the inlet on the west side of the lake near the lodge, and south from there along the shoreline. Some of the best fishing for trophy Macks has been been near the northern end of the lake in an area called the "Stairs," said Moulton.