Hi All,
The post on the steps to remove lake trout in yellowstone is very incouraging news.
The question that comes to mind is what about “catch and eat” as a positive step in removing these fish. I know that if you catch one up there it cannot (and should not) be returned to the water. Of course, all of the cutts should be returned to the water.
My question is are the lake trout good eating?
Thanks and regards,
Gandolf
Ive caught them from places other than Yellowstone and found them quite satisfactory. But then again I am a fish-a-holic.
im
I think that they are eating some of those captured trout at various restaurants. Also if you can one Yellowstone Lodge will cook it for you.
The macks I’ve had were delicious.
Regards,
Scott
There are very few freshwater fish worth eating… and as a fish lover I have tried most of them… Burbot, sturgeon, and lake trout are the best in my opinion.
So, my ego aside… 
lake trout are very worthwhile on the fork.
I remember cooking a neat little bunch of grayling when Denny was visiting, but IIRC we also had a lake trout that got hung up in a bad way and died and I cooked it in the fire, wrapped in aluminum foil with butter and garlic, onions, lemon wedges, and salt and pepper… We eat tons of very good saltwater fish and lake trout are worth remembering…
This may have been the very one we ate…
art
I used to think that Walleye were the best fresh water fish until my week of fishing in Alaska with Hap & family. As Art said, he fixed the fresh caught Lake Trout in alum foil, w/all the goodies for seasoning. The two young men and collected some dead alder and after allowing it to burn down into “just right” coals, placed the fish directly on the coals. I will not say it was better than what I remember Walleye but as good and it did not take the 4 of us long to clean it up.
We also had Grayling one night and I will go into my photos from the trip and see if I can add them here.
I found them to be finger lickin good also. So it was either the cook, freshness, Alaska or a combination of all that made our fish eating so memorable.
Denny
Never had grayling but have had well-cooked lake trout and found it to be surprising good…even had it smoked and it was excellent. However, that said, I’ll still take walleye and perch before anything else. In fact, if they are the right size, I might prefer perch before the walleye…they are both very special.
There have been many folks that brought walleye North just to prove to me how good it is. Then they put their frozen fish against fresh rockfish… They have all been shocked at how much better it is than walleye. I have caught and eaten lots of perch and walleye, crappie, bluegills, and more…
One concession I will make easly though is pike… Here it is almost always from tea-stained tannic waters and not worth the trouble to clean. I have had decent pike from good clear water.
Sorry for bending the thread away from the original question…
art
Denny
That was exactly the grayling picture I was thinking about.
Trust fall/winter is treating you well.
art
Will confirm that rockfish or a good lingcod are pretty dang good. One of these days I will try walleye. But lake trout are good fish…really good smoked for the big’uns
Hap. The lake trout we catch around here are called “mackinaw”. The trout you’re holding in the picture appears to be a “dolly varden”, unless I’m mistaken.
Dolly’s are char, and mackinaw are trout. Don’t know about the flavor difference, since I’ve never eaten a dolly. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I remember, way back, I was wrong once before.
Lew! How could it happen??!!?? Twice you are wrong in one lifetime? I am shocked!
Take a look at the lake trout, Mackinaw, if you insist, and you will see the spots on the back are irregularly shaped, not quite the worm tracks on brookies, but similar. And there are no red spots below the lateral line. A dolly colored up like that would be covered with bright spots all over. That is also a fish caught in early July when a Dolly would be steel blue. Dollies color up in the fall like the one my son is holding in the picture in this post. That is also him holding the lake trout.
They did some rearranging of taxonomy in trouts and salmon since I was in college in the '70s. Lake trout are char and rainbow trout are salmon.
But the bigger question is about my son… Did I abuse him as a child forcing him to catch all those monster fish?
Lew
Absolutely no hard feeings taken or intended.
thanks
art
Getting the post back to what the author wanted to know, yes, Lake Trout are very tasty. Pick out a nice recipe that has been developed specifically to bring out the flavor of the species if you have the facilities or the inclination to do so.
Yes, lake trout are very good to eat. Their flesh is pinkish beige in color and taste somehat like slamon but a bit milder.
Flesh color really depends on diet… We get them as they are savaging salmon smolts and they are deeper than just pink, but not as red as salmon. Some places we catch them they eat more insects than fish and they are quite pale meated.
Back in “The Day” the late JC and me would make an annual trip from our base on Michigan’s Au Sable River up to Traverse City, Michigan where his parents had a summer cabin. We would spend the day trolling for Lake Trout in Grand Traverse Bay. This was in the time before the sea lamprey were completely controlled and catching a Lake Trout took a bit of doing. If we did not succeed JC’s father would have one in the freezer that we could take back to our camp on the Au Sable where we would split it in half, wire it on a plank and prop it up in front of a fire of oak splits. We would brush butter over the flesh during the cooking process, and when it was done it was a treat that was out of this world.
I expected to get swatted when I made the comment. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an arctic char except in pictures. I plead sleep deprivation as an excuse for even pushing the “post” button. I apologize for interrupting your excellent thread. As far as taste goes, I think it’s personal preference that makes the difference. Viva la difference’.
Lew
Arctic char are a different species from Dolly Varden. We get both in quantity and size… The one my son is holding is a dolly on the Kenai River. Last year he caught up to a dozen arctic char per day that dwarfed the dolly in the photo… and I am not even stretching the truth a tiny bit with that…
art
You Alaskans are all alike! LUCKY!
Living to fish in Alaska does not suck…
