Epicurean Angler-Matthew Supinski's Selectivity/Nexus Blog- Everything Trout/Steelhead/Salmon

Epicurean Angler-Matthew Supinski's Selectivity/Nexus Blog- Everything Trout/Steelhead/Salmon

Thursday, May 14, 2009

AWESOME EAGLE-LAKE STRAIN RAINBOW


It was a great two days with John Templeton and his crew from Chicago.Today ,John hit a brightly colored Muskegon Eagle-Lake strain Rainbow that hit 20 inches.These are the 6 inchers that they plant to the tune of 80,000 in the Muskegon system. They are not supposed to grow large ,according to the DNR biologists.HOWEVER, this girl wasn't informed of that decree.She was caught behind steelhead redds on a chinook fry pattern.

How do you tell these fish (cutthroat/bows) apart from other rainbows and steelhead? Very simple.They have very bright orange slits under the gill plates, they have leopard spotting throughout the body and very bright orange/red ventral fins along with orange spotting along the underbelly.This strain comes from Northern California where they were found to tolerate very warm lake temperatures and are a very hearty strain ideal for stocking.

Here is John with the beauty also a brightly colored male steelhead.

River conditions...perfect1 2680 cfs, water temp 56F.Lots of trout on top eating cinnamon caddis ,American March Browns. Also, if you see a large slashing rise, it is probably a trout or drop back steelhead targeting Chinook fry that are on the surface themselves targeting midges.