Another great trip with Reel Crazy Charters

[mattym22]

Once again had an awesome day with Mark From Reel Crazy.  This is my fifth season fishing with him and a great time as expected.  Started in shallow for browns but the cottonwood and junk from the heavy rain cut that short.  Not before we got a decent brown though and the tiniest baby king I think I have ever seen.  Then headed out and went back and forth between 100 to 150 got 2 nice steel head and 4 lakers and lost 4 others that I couldn't id and lost one salmon on the wire dipsey with spin doctor and fly.  Lost him at the net.  That's the way she goes. So total of 7/12 I believe.  Some huge trees floating out in the lake as well so keep your eyes peeled.  Thanks again mark

 

brown

Edited June 17, 2015 by mattym22

[mattym22]

steelhead

[mattym22]

  box o fish

[mattym22]

  steelhead caviar

[mattym22]

  ready for the freezer

[HBC]

I'm baffled why there would be loose eggs in a bow this late in the season......and why it was out in the lake.  I've never seen that in my almost half century of life.

[spoondraggin]

We had a steelhead at the oak last weekend that was half full of eggs.

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[Cheers]

We had one last week! She was all egg

[ontherise]

I caught a brown last month with eggs, is this normal?

[henrybud]

This is getting eggciting. Interestingly enough my dad, who lives on a creek off the lake, has seen a few trout running up just last week.

[jerryriggin]

I would say drop back steelhead that failed to spawn in the river this spring.

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[alex1young]

Could they be Skamania strain?  

[Fishnatzee]

The Eggs in the photo of the steelhead would have been from this spring and the reason they are still in the fish was likely due to the fish not spawning for some reason or failing to release all of her eggs if she did spawn. Typically you may see a few left, but normally there isn't that many. These eggs would not be viable and could not be fertilized to produce offspring. If it was a Skamania, the eggs would have been in the egg skien still and would not be loose. the other thing to look for is the color of the eggs, those in the picture were clear, a normal viable egg would be opaque in color. after the egg is past the time it can be fertilized it starts to break down and it will eventually be reabsorbed by the fish and it would leave just the egg shell behind which doesn't break down. I have worked in the fisheries filed for over 30 years with Atlantic salmon and have worked in fish hatcheries for much of that time and have seen this before.

[spoonfed-1]

The Eggs in the photo of the steelhead would have been from this spring and the reason they are still in the fish was likely due to the fish not spawning for some reason or failing to release all of her eggs if she did spawn. Typically you may see a few left, but normally there isn't that many. These eggs would not be viable and could not be fertilized to produce offspring. If it was a Skamania, the eggs would have been in the egg skien still and would not be loose. the other thing to look for is the color of the eggs, those in the picture were clear, a normal viable egg would be opaque in color. after the egg is past the time it can be fertilized it starts to break down and it will eventually be reabsorbed by the fish and it would leave just the egg shell behind which doesn't break down. I have worked in the fisheries filed for over 30 years with Atlantic salmon and have worked in fish hatcheries for much of that time and have seen this before.

 

We took one about 3 weeks ago out of the lake that was full of eggs.

Normal looking eggs.

[Fishnatzee]

normal looking as in light pink or slightly orange and opaque? or were they clear like the ones in the photo? Loose in fish belly? Brown or steelhead? Like I said...it isn't too out of the ordinary to find some eggs left, but lots of eggs means the fish didn't spawn successfully. If you look closely at any mature female fish caught this time of year, there should be a small egg sac developing, it is just below the kidney which is the dark bloody section running along the ventral surface of the backbone. I caught a 8 lb steelhead last weekend and saw about a 3-4 inch long egg skein developing for this year, the eggs in the skein were about the size of a pin head.  

[willy-mo]

We've done 3 like that in the past 2 weeks!

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[Fishnatzee]

I have attached a few pictures from eggs removed from salmon last fall...these are viable eggs that will be fertilized with a male and placed into incubators to hatch...take note of the color. Sometimes lake trout eggs are more yellow, but the same opaque coloration. the egg color varies sometimes between fish depending on the diet and condition of the fish, similar to what you see when you filet the fish, the flesh color may vary.

[spoonfed-1]

normal looking as in light pink or slightly orange and opaque? or were they clear like the ones in the photo? Loose in fish belly? Brown or steelhead? Like I said...it isn't too out of the ordinary to find some eggs left, but lots of eggs means the fish didn't spawn successfully. If you look closely at any mature female fish caught this time of year, there should be a small egg sac developing, it is just below the kidney which is the dark bloody section running along the ventral surface of the backbone. I caught a 8 lb steelhead last weekend and saw about a 3-4 inch long egg skein developing for this year, the eggs in the skein were about the size of a pin head.  

 

Steelhead.

Normal as in slightly orange and opaque.

And loose.

Like she was ready to drop them in the lake.

[Fishnatzee]

That is interesting, but some steelhead spawn in the late spring...she is not going to have good spawning success if these don't get fertilized and buried in the gravel. She needs to get into the river fast...

 

You can use those for making your own cured salmon eggs for tying up your own egg sacks to fish in the river.

[Sea-IV]

Last season at the Oak we went out and we're doing a number on some nice kings when all the sudden out of the water jumps a big Steelie. We get it to the boat and once it hit the deck it started spitting eggs all over the place. Now we caught this fish 120' down over 200+ and her tail was beat up like a spawning bass. The other thing was it was the week after 4th of July and I had never seen anything like it before so I called a buddy at a hatchery for Rainbows and he said that sometimes they get so stressed whether it be pressure from fishing or weather changes that some just don't cut there eggs loose.

[scobar]

I had read many years ago that the female may not spawn if no male is found when she is ready, who knows?

[Fishnatzee]

I agree with that assumption, sounds like some fish this year decided to not drop their eggs for some reason?

Hopefully enough big fat females were on the spawning grounds and had a good year, otherwise there might be a poor run of steelies in a few years...I have been catching more steelhead than browns over the last few years, so something is going right for them.

[GAMBLER]

A lot of steelhead came into the creeks late. A warm May with no rain more than likely booted them out early due to high water temps. The sandy creek pen rearing project was cancelled this year because the water was too warm days before the fish were delivered.

[Fishnatzee]

Yes, less than favorable migratory and spawning conditions this year are the likely suspects to a poor spawning year for steelhead and it sounds like some people are seeing the results first hand with fish having lots of eggs in them still. The good thing is steelhead can spawn many times in their life, so one bad year doesn't mean they can't be more successful next year, but does mean less smolts going out into the lake. Fish that don't deposit their eggs this year will reabsorb the nutrients left and can still spawn successfully the following year.