Northwest Fishing Reports

I caught a fat 14inch Cutthroat out of Lake Padden today, and I think it is the first Cutthroat I have caught that was clearly a fish-eater. It's belly was full of perch, and it looked similar to the Lake WA Cutthoat pics in all the reports. I've kept Cutts before, but when I cut this one open, it had a unique and pungent odor - coming from the stomach and digestive tract (and stool). Is this common among trout that are dining on fish? Do Lake WA Cutts share this distinctive odor?

I’m just impressed you got through all the stockers to find a cutthroat in Padden...

branweeds wrote:I’m just impressed you got through all the stockers to find a cutthroat in Padden...

I hooked one just like it a week ago as well, but I handed off my rod (and the fish) to a newbie. I am noticing less perch around this year - maybe the cutts are taking their toll?

I’ve caught a lot of Lake WA. Cutts.
Never noticed any shtank going on.

The Quadfather wrote:I’ve caught a lot of Lake WA. Cutts.
Never noticed any shtank going on.

I think I just have a sensitive nose for it. I can smell the difference between all 5 species of salmon when I am filleting them, and often smell differences between different rivers. The cutthroat fillets smell just fine now so they are on the bbq. We'll see how this goes.

That’s cool, Jakedogfish..
If you can smell the difference in some rivers you may have salmonid in you somewheres.

Update - just off the grill, the smell is stronger now and one reluctant nibble later tells me NEVER AGAIN. Trust your nose, people.

I have kept a large cutthroat from a private 2 acre pond before that smelled and tasted foul. That specific bass pond hadnt been stocked with cutts for 30 plus years when the young kids at that time used to throw fish caught out of a local creek in there! It tasted just like you would think coming out of a shallow cow pasture pond. I was impressed that these native fish could evolve into such an obviously "top predator" over the course of 30 yrs. In that pound the cutts were eating bullfrogs and bass fry.

I once caught a small wild rainbow out of a small stream in Utah that smelled and tasted like some sort of petroleum product. I kept a couple of small Browns from the same creek that day and they tasted great. Not sure what that was about.

The Quadfather wrote:That’s cool, Jakedogfish..
If you can smell the difference in some rivers you may have salmonid in you somewheres.

I don’t sniff my fish, and I “never sniff a gift fish”.