Striking Gold in the Shadow of them Cliffs (non-yak)

I decided to let my old man's elbow tendinitus have a chance to heal, and took a nice leisurely day fishing with Raymac on his magical electric machine.  We fished rapalas, shad raps, lucky strike minnows, grubs and needlefish with little to show for in the early morning.  Then I switched to kastmasters and caught a nice sized trout.  That was a harbinger of good things to come.  Later I caught a 9 lb. 4 oz and 10 lb. 10 oz. trout and some other smaller ones.  Ray caught a number of smaller ones and C&R ones.  Playing the two larger ones was a blast and I can only imagine what excitement they would have provided if hooked from a kayak.

Thanks for a great day Ray.

Nice slabs there...

Nice work guys! Those are some toads!

holy cow are those genetically engineered or something? or is this lake near Lawrence Livermore?

holy cow are those genetically engineered or something?

Some of these farmed fatties are really a bit weird looking.  In the last picture, the top, large one was more normally proportioned.  But the second one down was real broad.  These must be analogous to "pathologically obese" humans.  I wonder if fish get heart attacks?

But I will say, when you just get them alongside you think you just caught a salmon.

Fish are from Mt. Lassen trout hatchery.  Same ones go into Del Valle, Chabot, San Pablo Dam, Quarry and a few other lakes in the bay area.  DFG plants are the smaller trout and they come from Idaho.  Some lakes get both types of plants.

Ken kickfish

I don't like the shape their tail fins are in!  Only one fish had a normal fin!

holy handgranades marmite!!! those are some gigantic trout. where did you catch them?

I don't like the shape their tail fins are in!

I think most farmed fish have rounded, worn down tails from rubbing up against the pens they are raised in. Maybe the bigger the fish the more worn down the tail.

Where did you catch them?

Shadow Cliffs Lake

Yessiree those are some nice size bottom-rackers there! Take a day to smoke!

I'm smoking 1 and a half of the two largest fish.  Can anyone tell me how well smoked fish holds up in the refrigerator and how long you can keep it frozen (if it's still good frozen)?

I'm smoking 1 and a half of the two largest fish.  Can anyone tell me how well smoked fish holds up in the refrigerator and how long you can keep it frozen (if it's still good frozen)?

hey, great fish there marmite! must have been fun on light test!

store it in a lock-n-lock or tupperware with something to absorb excess oil and moisture and you are good for two weeks if you used a fair bit of salt in the brine. a lot of guys like to up the sugar and push down the salt but then you probably don't get as long a lasting product do you?

as for freezing, kickfish does that with his salmon and I think it lasts months. so a lot of salt in the brine and quality vacuum bagging and I think you are good through christmas!

must have been fun on light test!

Yes!  I got the largest trout on one of Ray's light trout rigs that you can see just behind me in the first picture.  The reel was screaming for awhile.  Imagine what it would be like if the guy had a full tail instead of just a stub.

holy cow are those genetically engineered or something?

Yes.  They are triploids.  They get big, but they are fugly.

I'll take a FUGLY one of those, anytime!  great day of catchin for both of you guys! and Doug?...don't worry, your membership will not suffer.