Deskunked @ Lafayette Res.

After Fishinhawk's encouraging report last week, I thought I'd try my local Lafayette Reservoir for a repeat on Saturday 11/22, and sure enough, I was successful for a change.

OTW 845, beautiful conditions. The gentle breeze completely disappeared around 10 to make it completely idyllic. Fishing was slow all around, no response to drifted or trolled crawlers. A few others caught fish sporadically on Power Bait. I tried both the south end and the east end, then trolled around to see if I could scare up a random fish. FF showed some hits near the dam, but no bites resulted.

Finally, this nice 18" beauty satisfied my cravings, hitting a trolled spoon near the reeds on the southwest shore area. The fight was fun, too, on my ultralight rod. 2lb 11oz of nice rainbow.

I trolled the area some more for nada, but got a first time sighting of a green heron in the westernmost cove area. A very pretty bird.

So not a bad day, and I am grateful to shed the smell of skunk.

pics: 1-da launch, 2-da nice day, 3-da fish!, 4-da man!, 5-da length, 6-da bird, 7-da lovely fish face!

Nice report - that looks like it could be a cutthroat, but I'm not an authority on it.  Either way, nice one!   

Thanks for the report and beautiful pictures. Nice looking rainbow. Glad to hear your skunk hunt is over for now. That reservoir sure looks the way I remember. It has probably been 15 years since I fished those banks with my buddies.

Take Care and tight lines...
Ray

Gorgeous Fish! Love the colors on the cheeks....Andy

Nice fish! Congrats on a beautiful day at Lafayette.
It's been years since I've been there as well.

Nice report - that looks like it could be a cutthroat, but I'm not an authority on it.  Either way, nice one!  

It does look similar to a cutthroat but doesn't look like this fish has the namesake red slash under the jaw. Again- Either way, nice one!

Here's a pretty good ID for cutthroat:  http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlife/fishingalberta/fishidentification/images/cutthroatt.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlife/fishingalberta/fishidentification/cutthroattrout.aspx&usg=__hQlwBqf-Yr-KLNF-QhyaGE48CqQ=&h=232&w=415&sz=25&hl=en&start=50&um=1&tbnid=67vW4AQ9i32zGM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcutthroat%2Btrout%26start%3D36%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

F -Congrats on the nice trout, that's a beauty!  Lake looks real nice.

That's a green-backed heron in the bird pic.  The stretched neck and elevated crest posture indicates that he was alarmed that you found  his secret fishing spot! 

Take care - John

Nice coloring on the trout finaegelin. Thanks for the report and pictures. Is that the new trident13 with the rudder? If so, how do you like the rudder on it?

Thanks,
Jedmo

Nice fish, I've never fished it but the GF likesto float around out there,

One day a couple years ago (with the GF) I saw a kid pull in one over 24" off the dock, then as I was leaving a guy was weighing in a 10#8oz fish, it was the ugliest trout I've ever seen, so ya never know what you're gonna hook in that little lake.

Good job

  

Thanks, y'all. It's nice to live close to a fishable lake. I got a 6lb trout there once from a paddleboat, but mostly they're under 12". Easy fun, but skunks are common too. Someday I'll learn to catch bass there too. Rumor has it there's a sturgeon in there, too...

It was a nice pretty fish. Half was dinner last night, the rest is becoming gravlax for a Thanksgiving appetizer.

Jedmo, it's a Trident 15, and I do like the rudder. It's a bit hard to deploy, but once in the water it works well.

Nice one!

Nice looking rainbow and report, almost looks like a native. Not a cutthroat, IMO because it doesn't have the red mark in the throat area and I don't think there are any cutthroats in any of the bay area reserviors.

scott

I would be doing OTW cartwheels, if i hooked one like that! VERY Impressive!!(=I'am VERY Jealous)
Thanks for the pics&'port!

side note&NO TheadJack~~this one was I.D.'d as a THUNDER TROUT.....circa06'ShadowCliffs
it looks simular and they have planted them there in the past.