Smoked lake trout

Hoster05

Father in law brought two decent sized Lakers back from Canada.  Butterflied the fish, Salt cured overnight with rosemary and lemon rind. Rinsed and set aside for 5 hours.  Smoked at 200 with pecan.  Didn’t get a finished picture, fail.  Good smoke taste on the finished product.  First time I’ve tried to keep my egg at 200, worked like a charm.  Fish on top rack weee from the larger fish, tying them with twine and cutting in pieces helps get the rendered fat out of the larger fish.  Otherwise they are greasy.  

Theophan

That fish looks fantastic!

I haven't fished since I was a boy, so I know almost nothing about fish, really, but I'm fascinated by the color.  Lake trout always had a beige color to the flesh, never orange like salmon, until recent years when lake trout in the grocery stores almost always is salmon-color, BUT it always says it's had color added to it.  I'm amazed that your father in law caught wild lake trout and it was that color.

Can you or others educate me on this?  Are there different types of lake trout some of which have an orange color, or are there lakes or streams some places where they naturally pick up that color?  It looks really great!

poster

Theophan said:

That fish looks fantastic!

I haven't fished since I was a boy, so I know almost nothing about fish, really, but I'm fascinated by the color.  Lake trout always had a beige color to the flesh, never orange like salmon, until recent years when lake trout in the grocery stores almost always is salmon-color, BUT it always says it's had color added to it.  I'm amazed that your father in law caught wild lake trout and it was that color.

Can you or others educate me on this?  Are there different types of lake trout some of which have an orange color, or are there lakes or streams some places where they naturally pick up that color?  It looks really great!

Well there are tons of sub-species of lake trout, the major contributing factor to their color is their diet. I fish them a lot up here in the north. Usually we stay away from the great lakes fish as they are pale, full of fat and fishy tasting. This is because they are feeding off smelts and herring/sisco. That being said they are not all like this in the big lakes, but plenty of them are. In the smaller inland lakes they feed off, smaller fish, bugs, cray fish, etc. These guys tend to be more lean and taste better. I have caught some ranging from a deep orange to pink in the same lake. Lake trout grow slow, especially in the inland lakes, a 10lber up here is likely 30 years old

fishlessman

nice togue cook.  heres dad with yesterday mornings stringer. buried 14 this weekend in the garden.  we marinate them for 4 hours in half and half curdled with lemon or lime then deepfry with jiffy corn muffin mix.  no greasy taste this way.  the local bios ruined the salmon fishing with these slime darts

fishlessman

poster said:

Theophan said:

That fish looks fantastic!

I haven't fished since I was a boy, so I know almost nothing about fish, really, but I'm fascinated by the color.  Lake trout always had a beige color to the flesh, never orange like salmon, until recent years when lake trout in the grocery stores almost always is salmon-color, BUT it always says it's had color added to it.  I'm amazed that your father in law caught wild lake trout and it was that color.

Can you or others educate me on this?  Are there different types of lake trout some of which have an orange color, or are there lakes or streams some places where they naturally pick up that color?  It looks really great!

Well there are tons of sub-species of lake trout, the major contributing factor to their color is their diet. I fish them a lot up here in the north. Usually we stay away from the great lakes fish as they are pale, full of fat and fishy tasting. This is because they are feeding off smelts and herring/sisco. That being said they are not all like this in the big lakes, but plenty of them are. In the smaller inland lakes they feed off, smaller fish, bugs, cray fish, etc. These guys tend to be more lean and taste better. I have caught some ranging from a deep orange to pink in the same lake. Lake trout grow slow, especially in the inland lakes, a 10lber up here is likely 30 years old

i believe the lakers in maine were from ny's chain lake area, the ones i catch deep are darker flesh and mainly smelt eating, the ones more shallow are eating alewives usually and more pale.  this year with them overpopulating the smelt and alewives have crashed and they are eating small yellow perch, small mouths, and large mouths in shallow, these fish are extremely pale, thin, and mush like in texture.  the bios want everyone under a certain size killed and removed, theres freezers being set up to store the fish to be fed to injured animals and raptors, i hope this new plan takes off

Eggcelsior

Lake trout has a different meaning down here around Baltimore. I was about to ask where the hot sauce is.

poster

fishlessman said:

poster said:

Theophan said:

That fish looks fantastic!

I haven't fished since I was a boy, so I know almost nothing about fish, really, but I'm fascinated by the color.  Lake trout always had a beige color to the flesh, never orange like salmon, until recent years when lake trout in the grocery stores almost always is salmon-color, BUT it always says it's had color added to it.  I'm amazed that your father in law caught wild lake trout and it was that color.

Can you or others educate me on this?  Are there different types of lake trout some of which have an orange color, or are there lakes or streams some places where they naturally pick up that color?  It looks really great!

Well there are tons of sub-species of lake trout, the major contributing factor to their color is their diet. I fish them a lot up here in the north. Usually we stay away from the great lakes fish as they are pale, full of fat and fishy tasting. This is because they are feeding off smelts and herring/sisco. That being said they are not all like this in the big lakes, but plenty of them are. In the smaller inland lakes they feed off, smaller fish, bugs, cray fish, etc. These guys tend to be more lean and taste better. I have caught some ranging from a deep orange to pink in the same lake. Lake trout grow slow, especially in the inland lakes, a 10lber up here is likely 30 years old

i believe the lakers in maine were from ny's chain lake area, the ones i catch deep are darker flesh and mainly smelt eating, the ones more shallow are eating alewives usually and more pale.  this year with them overpopulating the smelt and alewives have crashed and they are eating small yellow perch, small mouths, and large mouths in shallow, these fish are extremely pale, thin, and mush like in texture.  the bios want everyone under a certain size killed and removed, theres freezers being set up to store the fish to be fed to injured animals and raptors, i hope this new plan takes off

They are almost protected here in the inland lakes, lots of restrictions and some lakes are even protected. I guess they are some of the only original native fish left. Most are nice fish though, with  only a few lube tubes. We generally have pretty cool temp lakes too, dont know if this helps or not. I haven't seen the thermalcline lower then 30-40' down. Usually right at 50degrees

Theophan

poster said:Well there are tons of sub-species of lake trout, the major contributing factor to their color is their diet. I fish them a lot up here in the north. Usually we stay away from the great lakes fish as they are pale, full of fat and fishy tasting. This is because they are feeding off smelts and herring/sisco. That being said they are not all like this in the big lakes, but plenty of them are. In the smaller inland lakes they feed off, smaller fish, bugs, cray fish, etc. These guys tend to be more lean and taste better. I have caught some ranging from a deep orange to pink in the same lake. Lake trout grow slow, especially in the inland lakes, a 10lber up here is likely 30 years old

Absolutely fascinating -- thanks!

dmourati

Eggcelsior said:

Lake trout has a different meaning down here around Baltimore. I was about to ask where the hot sauce is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=70&v=54v_owIgSOI

fishlessman

poster said:

fishlessman said:

poster said:

Theophan said:

That fish looks fantastic!

I haven't fished since I was a boy, so I know almost nothing about fish, really, but I'm fascinated by the color.  Lake trout always had a beige color to the flesh, never orange like salmon, until recent years when lake trout in the grocery stores almost always is salmon-color, BUT it always says it's had color added to it.  I'm amazed that your father in law caught wild lake trout and it was that color.

Can you or others educate me on this?  Are there different types of lake trout some of which have an orange color, or are there lakes or streams some places where they naturally pick up that color?  It looks really great!

Well there are tons of sub-species of lake trout, the major contributing factor to their color is their diet. I fish them a lot up here in the north. Usually we stay away from the great lakes fish as they are pale, full of fat and fishy tasting. This is because they are feeding off smelts and herring/sisco. That being said they are not all like this in the big lakes, but plenty of them are. In the smaller inland lakes they feed off, smaller fish, bugs, cray fish, etc. These guys tend to be more lean and taste better. I have caught some ranging from a deep orange to pink in the same lake. Lake trout grow slow, especially in the inland lakes, a 10lber up here is likely 30 years old

i believe the lakers in maine were from ny's chain lake area, the ones i catch deep are darker flesh and mainly smelt eating, the ones more shallow are eating alewives usually and more pale.  this year with them overpopulating the smelt and alewives have crashed and they are eating small yellow perch, small mouths, and large mouths in shallow, these fish are extremely pale, thin, and mush like in texture.  the bios want everyone under a certain size killed and removed, theres freezers being set up to store the fish to be fed to injured animals and raptors, i hope this new plan takes off

They are almost protected here in the inland lakes, lots of restrictions and some lakes are even protected. I guess they are some of the only original native fish left. Most are nice fish though, with  only a few lube tubes. We generally have pretty cool temp lakes too, dont know if this helps or not. I haven't seen the thermalcline lower then 30-40' down. Usually right at 50degrees

pretty much the same thermocline here, august 55 degrees at 35 feet, right now its 57 on the surface.  sebago was the premier landlocked salmon fishery til some bio thought to add lakers to the system, then another bio added alewives to the water shed. they added a slot of 23 to 33 inches that you had to let them go to grow bigger to protect the salmon years ago, now they eat the salmon, go figure. this winter they remove the slot, the big salmon are basically gone, the togue (lake trout) are overpopulated and small and thin. the feed bait, rainbow smelt pop is crashed, theres no feed. you can yell at the bios who just blame the fishermen for catching and releasing.  dumb dumb dumb and i doubt it can be fixed.  ill be fishing saturday and yelling at a bio