Outdoors Guy early season trout adventure

May 20, 2011 34d Comments

fishing2011 018

(One of the giant cold water trout we caught last weekend, with surface temp ranging from 53 – 55 degrees F)

fishing2011 005

(My brother-in-law Steve with a great looking male brookie pulled from ‘Lac Perdu’)

fishing2011 004

(Another colourful brook trout)

fishing2011 012

(Bruce with his personal best…this one was 22″)

fishing2011 033

(Our friend ‘Shirley Partridge’ having a dirt nap beside the tent)

fishing2011 030

(Tent set-up at night)

fishing2011 029

(Awesome sunset at our campsite..so long for another year!)

34 thoughts on “Outdoors Guy early season trout adventure”

    1. Thanks Trapper!

      No, Shirley Partridge was literally having a ‘dirt nap’..she burrowed into the bank on that warm afternoon and powdered herself with sand dust. I have heard they do that to rid themselves of mites, etc..

      Every year, both the ruffed grouse and spruce grouse hang around our tent..either roosting or lying down in the sand…but if you ever saw the spot, you’d know why. Its a damn beautiful spot along the edge of the lake.

      Outdoorsguy

  2. Awesome Jeff, congrats on the fish…looks like you had a great time.

    Serge

  3. we caught 17 Specs but none that big, had a ball in Algonquin Park, very few bugs but you can tell just by the few buzzing arounf they are about to explode. I wouldn’t want to be there next weekend.
    Aren’t those Quebec Red’s and haven’t we been through this before 🙂

    1. Hey Iggy..you are very lucky not to get to pounded by the flies..I’m surprised really.

      Its sure fun to head north isnt it? See any bears this year?

      Well, I’m now officially calling my fish ‘mystery trout’..as Ive determined there are two different and distinct trout dwelling in our Lac Perdu. I always called the weird one QC Reds..which they may be…I have ‘fishr’ and ‘Maple’ on the case now, so we’ll see what they have to say.

      The difference can be seen in the pics above between the first trout I’m holding, the one my brother-in-law Steve is holding and the one Bruce has. You can see the difference between those fish pretty clearly. One type of trout has the typical ‘halo’ spots, square tail and ‘vermiculation’ on the fins and back. Clearly a brookie!

      The Mystery trout do not have halo spots..most have no spots at all..no vermiculation and almost no black along the white leading edge of the fins…they tend to be longer and more tapered as well.

      Outdoorsguy

    2. Iggy, if you have any ‘low res’ images of your Algonquin trip, I’ll try to post them here.

      Outdoorsguy

    1. Trapper, these are definitely not Browns as I had a lake back home with landlocked browns in it, and these look nothing like them…and they are also not Arctic Greyling by a long shot. The brown trout and Atlantic Salmon (Salmo) are more closely related – just as the brook trout, lake trout and Arctic char (Salvelinus)are more closely related..

      These fish, whatever they are..are closer to the char side.

      Outdoorsguy

    1. F1 Splake and F1 Backcross…etc..were traditionally a hatchery produced fish and was always sterile…used as a ‘put and take’ or ‘put and delayed take’ fish species.

      ‘Maple’ has, however, come up with some evidence to show that splake can, under certain conditions, reproduce in the wild..

      Thing is, these trout really don’t look all that much like splake…some people have suggested I bring a specimen into the Museum for investigation, cept my oldman would kill me! “We’ll have biologists crawling all over our lake then!”…and he may have a point, it’s kind of like the rare salamander thing.

      Outdoorsguy

  6. Blueback trout are closley associated to Char. But they definately have a forked tail. I’m swaying toward the Splake….

    1. Blueback is one option in the running….apparently they have those in upstate NY.and Maple has sent me some info on them

      Outdoorsguy

  7. …or a backcross version as you have suggested. (Back Cross = Hatchery produced splake re-producing with either a Lake Trout or a Speck.)

    1. Trapper, the real problem with any of those hachery related stocks..is the fact that noone besides us has really fished this particular over the past 15 years that we know of..there was one person who found it by accident one time years ago while we were there..but they never got a single bite(Cause they’re hard to catch) and we successfully convinced them there were no fish in the lake and we were leaving.(I believe they call that a ‘white lie’.

      Outdoorsguy

      1. Sorry Trapper, my point of the last comment is there’s been noone there to stock the lake that we know of..and we catch small mystery trout each year..as well as the big ones..so Im led to believe they are a naturally reproducing species.

        I did see young trout ‘fry’ along the shore too, but its hard to tell at that size..they all have ‘par marks’ as far as I know.

        Outdoorsguy

  8. “I’ve always heard that Splake can’t reproduce, they don’t spawn, saw two bears and two moose, most likely the bears were the same bear as they were seen close to the same place two days in a row. A guy I was fishing with that knows the park very well says the elevation of the park is what delays the black flies for a week or two.”

    1. Ahh…God bless the elevation..and the fact that the world didn’t end Saturday night…that would have put a real wrench in your trip.

      Outdoorsguy

    1. Hey man…it was nippy up there the first two days, and those Mossy Oak hunting gloves were just what the Dr. ordered…besides, they saved my hands from lots of scratches when removing hooks from the fish.

      Believe it or not, my brother-in-law has a scar on this thumb from all the trout he took off the hook during a trip we made back in 93…caught almost 100 trout that spring and those little teeth scratch like heck!

      Outdoorsguy

  11. we were up on the Dumoine and it was so cold we put our hands in the water to warm them up.
    And trout are a squirmy fish, never got a hook in me from a fish but my BIL got one from a pike and had to pull it all the way through till it came out bacause of the barb. Gross and painfull

  12. Beautiful trout by anyone’s standards Jeff!!!! Well done guys!!!!

    I’ve been squinting at your pics of the mystery trout again today and, boy, it sure is a mystery. Trout (char) for sure, but a very dark fish. Char (speckles, lakers, bull trout, arctic char and Dolly Varden) all have a dark background with a lighter pattern on it, true “trout” (browns, cut throat, and the myriad of minor US species) have a light background with darker patterning. That being said, yours looks dark with lighter pattern to me. Very square tail like a speckle, not forked or indented like a laker or arctic char. No discernable small red spots with blue halo,unlike a speckle, unless they are overwhelmed by the darkness. AND, it’s not rare for two distinct populations of a trout species to simultaneously inhabit the same lake.

    Is it a Quebec Red?

    Quebec Red/ Sunapee trout/ blueback trout (also called silver trout or golden trout because of their shiney-light appearance) are all the same subspecies of Arctic char, called Salvelinus alpinus (subspecies) oquassa, and are so-named (oquassa) after the lake in Maine where they were first ‘found’. During my “investigations” this spring, I heard reports of them still being caught in one lake in the Gatineaus. They are not known to be found naturally as far west as you were fishing, however they are available for stocking in Quebec. Note that these are NOT the speckled trout falsely and commonly called Quebec Reds. Not the same fish at all! Heck you can even catch arctic char (true Quebec Reds) at Thistle Springs Trout Farm!

    Splake and speckles are also widely available for stocking in Quebec, and it’s common for fishers to “secretly” dump fingerlings into a back-woods lake and return at a later date to fish for them. Or not. It’s easily done. I know of many who do it. Done it myself. At 50 cents a fish, thousands are easily affordable and often well worth the investment. (Note that it’s apparently illegal, therefore I didn’t really do it!).

    But, what is your fish Jeff? Splake? Unusual speckled trout? New species unknown to science? (GASP). I’d say, one of these. But, I’ve been wrong before.

    There are a couple of ways to find out for sure, and don’t tell the museum/MRNF/MNR where you caught it!!! Or, do the dissection and internal observations yourself. Or, I can do them for you.

    So, the mystery trout remains a mystery for yet another year……….

    Beautiful trout by anyone’s standards!!!! Congratulations Jeff!!!

    Maple

  13. Congrats on the catches.

    I came back from a trip in the Eastern Township of QC (Lac Massawippi) with my brothers. Had never fished that lake. Youngest brother caught a laker (21″ = legal), and a 17 brookie. I caugh a 18″ brookie. My other brother caugh nothing. Had a great time.

    We rented the boat, and were amazed of the electronics on it (two powerful depth finders), and an electric motor that has the “gizz-mos” (GPS, hand control unit, park, self movement for fishing lakers towards particular far away point, etc. etc.). Pretty much hands-free fishing. Had never seen this before.

    We ate the laker for dinner with bottles of wines. Gooooooddd.

    But the size of your fishes are incredible.

    1. Thanks LG, my friend Mark Stiffel – VP of Brecks International(Aka Williams tackle) lives and fishes trout in the Townships..there are other nice lakes in that area too with good trout fishing..you are very lucky as I’ve never fished there myself.

      By the way, every last trout we caught was on a Brecks/Williams product!!

      Outdoorsguy

  15. we use an electric motor on the Dumoine for Walleye jigging now, it allows you to quietly move along a shoreline and stay the proper distance from shore even when the wind is blowing wrong, without starting up the loud smokey 9.9. It really is perfect for jigging

  16. Helllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
    anyone home 🙂
    :0

    Everyone gone for summer vacation?

    1. Iggy, I think the warm weather this week should bring people back out again.

      You still heading to Dumoine this summer?

      Outdoorsguy

  17. Going to the Dumoine just after the long weekend in August, taking up some newbys and a few veterans
    Buddy was just there, the guy that caught the spek in the Orrawa River, he said they slayed them but the bugs were out of this world. He said “more and bigger average size” fish I mean, not bugs

    1. Iggy, the guys who just came back from Dumoine..were they up there for the opening of walleye/dore, or was it trout they were catching??

      Outdoorsguy

  18. Great to see how your life has taken you to the places you love the most. It’s been 20 yrs since we last hunted together. My fishin and huntin bug has taken me to the yukon. I hunted and fished for 15 yrs then stopped to build a house and now I’m back on the water. You need to send me some contact numbers so we can share some stories. Yukon Bob
    PS I have never eaten chilli at 8am ever since.

    1. Hey, Bobby(From what I recall, I was the only one allowed to call you that)

      Man, it is great to hear from you, brother…the ironic part is I just did a Google search on you this week…seems Im a bit easier to find eh?!

      The last time I saw you, you were being questioned by a Quebec Conservation Officer who couldn’t figure out why you weren’t answering him..hehe..till my buddy Jim explained that you didn’t speak the language..

      I was wondering what happened to you up there in the far north..figured I might see you on the next episode of Gold Rush Yukon, or something.

      Don’t know if you still hunt or not, but I bet you’ve got some impressive moose photos to share in all your years living in YK..if you have any you’d like to share, click on my email and send them along!

      I will send you an email in the next day or so…great to hear from you and everyone sends a big ‘Hi’ from your birth province of Ontario..apparently since arriving in YT you’ve never looked back. Have you been back to Formosa at all?

Comments are closed.