Speckled Trout in Hagg?

[Incredible_Bulk]

Hey guys,

I was fishing with a friend of mine over on the Crooked River this past weekend (not great fishing, although one of my buddy hammered them on bronze flash spinners) Anyway, point of the story. :)

As we were talking about recent fishign exploits, one of the guys with me was discussing a recent trip to Hagg, and said that he caught a speckled trout at Hagg, I wasn't sure that those were in the system there, and he said, it may have been a trout with some kind of disease, as it was covered in these speckely spots.

Needless to say, I didn't see it, and the description is unable to be translated properly. Have you seen anything out that way that would match the description? Are there speckled trout introduced to Hagg?

Thanks for the time,
Ben

[fishnlady]

I have fished Hagg almost every week this season, and have never caught a trout with any sort of disease. All of our fish have been healthy & great looking. As far as I know there are Rainbow and Cutthroat in Hagg. All of the trout we have caught this year have been Rainbow, plus one Cutthroat. I wonder if he might have caught a Cutthroat. It would be interesting to know what the spots looked like. Too bad he didn't take a photo.

[Incredible_Bulk]

That's possible. My guess is that it was either a mis-identified cutthroat or possibly a brook trout. Are there any brooks in Hagg? From what I was looking up, they call Brookies Speckled trout in other parts of the country.

Dunno. Glad to hear the populations are healthy, I had hoped it wasn't some sort of issue with the fish itself.

Bulk

[mkwerx]

In all the years I've fished hagg, I've never, ever seen a brookie from that water - but I have seen a number of cutts and of course the bows that were stocked. Both Sain Creek and Scoggins Creek have a rather healthy supply of wild, native cutts, and I have before seen some rather large specimens (18+ inches) in both creeks.

It would not surprise me though, if some bucket biologist bumped brookies or lake trout or some frankenfish hybrid of the later in there. They did that with yellow perch and other warm water fish 20 years ago. Funny how when ODFW found they were in there, the original plan was to fish 'em out and exterminate them. They even sunk structure in a couple locales and were asking people to catch & kill every perch they could. Now the lake seems more geared toward the warm water fish, and they just dump hatchery trout in there to satisfy the meat hunters. I remember a trout fishery that was much, much better than what it is like out there now. Just like Diamond before the introduction of the chubs.

The bass though, took hold quite well, as did the perch. Since Hagg has produced so many record smallies - I doubt they'd ever consider removal of the bass in favor of a better trout fishery. Maybe when the new dam gets built out there, the deeper, colder water will make the trout fishery better. I'm sure since the new hagg will be bigger, they'll put more trout in there than they do now. Heck, maybe we can get ODFW to stock northern pike in there too. They could eat the perch that the bass don't seem to get a handle on, and the perch would at least grow larger. In a couple seasons maybe we could produce record pike too. Huge, toothy pike might be a deterrent for jet skiers and wake boarders too :meme:

[B33R]

Maybe when the new dam gets built out there, the deeper, colder water will make the trout fishery better. I'm sure since the new hagg will be bigger, they'll put more trout in there than they do now. Heck, maybe we can get ODFW to stock northern pike in there too. They could eat the perch that the bass don't seem to get a handle on, and the perch would at least grow larger. In a couple seasons maybe we could produce record pike too. Huge, toothy pike might be a deterrent for jet skiers and wake boarders too :meme:


Anymore info on the "new dam"?

Would Kokanee be an option with the new dam?

[nevermiss]

Unless I'm wrong speckled trout are a salt water fish. They shouldn't be able to live in a fresh water lake.

[bratchek]

It is also possible that it was just a fish with a deformity. I work on juvenile Chinook and Steelhead and often see fish that have different coloration and markings. Its a possibility that he just caught a cut or bow that had a mutation or deformity that caused the spots to be bigger, miss located or whatever caused the strange report.

[mkwerx]

well, "speckled trout" could possibly mean Splake - the brookie/laketrout hybrid. I've heard brookies referred to as "speckled trout" - and of course, there are the saltwater speckled trout. Are the saltwater version even salmonidae?

It's also possible that it was a cutt-bow - hybrid cuthroat and rainbow, since both inhabit Hagg. Could've just been a wild cutt too. Without pix of the fish, it'd be hard to pin down.

Could've also been a normal trout w/ parr marks still, like this?

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6573/hagglaketroutna7.jpg