Decent Day at Electric

[Sun Dance]

I'd been hearing reports all over this week that Electric Lake was absolutely on fire. So the family and I headed up early, pulled in around 7:30, and within two minutes I had a 15" cutt on my line. I've never seen action that fast. The sun was still behind the hill, so that was helpful. The thing bit my finger and it still hurts. Feels like I grabbed a rosebush.

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Threw out again and within a half hour a nice 14" Tiger:

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Within another five minutes of casting out, got another Tiger hooked, but I don't know how big it was because it was the one that got away. I played with it too much reeling it in and lifted it up by the pole without grabbing the line and making sure it was over dry ground. It flipped off and, as if mocking me, swam away, ever so excruciatingly slowly.

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Luckily, a half hour later I got a nice parting gift with a 12" Rainbow:

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Not a bad day at all. Much better than my previous attempts. Can you BBQ trout? Thinking of trying. Anyone have any good fillet prep recipes?

[LOAH]

Nice job! The rainbows are the rare species in the lake. Pretty cool that you got one.

Sucks about the one that got away, but it's an old cliche for a reason.:facepalm1:

Glad you got out. We were in the same region yesterday and considered Electric before running out of time.

Looks like you may have fished the north end?

[Sun Dance]

Yep, north end. Very nice to drive right up to the shore. You can tailgate and fish.

[Sun Dance]

Also, the rainbow was only 12" and had white meat and resembled a planter, but Electric hasn't been stocked since 2010, and those were all Tigers. How did it get in there? I thought 2nd years developed orange or red meat. That's how the cutt and tiger looked. Or do rainbows tend to have lighter meat anyway?

[LOAH]

It could very well be a hatchery bow, especially on the north end. Boulger is heavily stocked with planters and flows into Electric.

There is a wild population of rainbows in E-Lake though. I've never caught one of those, but I've seen them. They're usually pretty nice.

The color of meat has only a small amount to do with how old the fish is, but more to do with the food they're eating, elevation, water mineral content, and other variables.

In a hatchery, they eat pellets and don't get the same nutrients as they would in the ecosystem of a lake. I've heard that beta-carotene in insects and crustaceans is a big factor in flesh color.