Puddingstone 1/21/13

[Kingfish Addict]

Fished the back of sailboat cove with my buddy and kids during the middle of the day, 5 poles in the water, big fat skunk. BUT when we got back to the parking lot, some dude walking to his car had a 2-3lb rainbow on his stringer, said he caught it on chartreuse powerbait. This thing was beautiful, fat, and had an early stage hook jaw. This was by far the biggest trout my buddy and I have EVER seen pulled out of Puddingstone. It gives me a little hope for that lake...and if that's the size of the trout the DFW is stocking this year, thank you! We'll try again soon....and sorry no pic of that fish, it wasn't mine to be taking pictures of.

[dday07]

Fished the back of sailboat cove with my buddy and kids during the middle of the day, 5 poles in the water, big fat skunk. BUT when we got back to the parking lot, some dude walking to his car had a 2-3lb rainbow on his stringer, said he caught it on chartreuse powerbait. This thing was beautiful, fat, and had an early stage hook jaw. This was by far the biggest trout my buddy and I have EVER seen pulled out of Puddingstone. It gives me a little hope for that lake...and if that's the size of the trout the DFW is stocking this year, thank you! We'll try again soon....and sorry no pic of that fish, it wasn't mine to be taking pictures of.

Depends on the stock...was there one day when stocked and all there were was little ones...just varies.

[DMAN]

Haven't been there since around the Dec 19th stocking, but that fish sounds like some of the fish they stocked at that time. I caught a decent sized trout with a hooked jaw. I wonder if they have been stocking them that way since late December. Most were pretty small, but they stocked a couple decent sized ones in there.

[old pudd fisher]

Fished the back of sailboat cove with my buddy and kids during the middle of the day, 5 poles in the water, big fat skunk. BUT when we got back to the parking lot, some dude walking to his car had a 2-3lb rainbow on his stringer, said he caught it on chartreuse powerbait. This thing was beautiful, fat, and had an early stage hook jaw. This was by far the biggest trout my buddy and I have EVER seen pulled out of Puddingstone. It gives me a little hope for that lake...and if that's the size of the trout the DFW is stocking this year, thank you! We'll try again soon....and sorry no pic of that fish, it wasn't mine to be taking pictures of.

Thanks Kingfish, glad the pudd is ok now and it should be a good spring and summer for panfish.

[Kingfish Addict]

Depends on the stock...was there one day when stocked and all there were was little ones...just varies.

Ya I guess you never know what you're gonna get when it comes to the DFW. Regardless, a few larger trout have made their way into the Pudd and that's great news at this point...

[Cartman]

I could probably research this myself, or maybe Smokehound will chime in, but I'm just wondering...aren't the ones with the hook in the jaw all males? My understanding is that the trout farms only sell females to protect their own business by preventing trout from reproducing on their own.

[river_fish]

I heard pudd had a fish kill last month is that true?

[Kingfish Addict]

I could probably research this myself, or maybe Smokehound will chime in, but I'm just wondering...aren't the ones with the hook in the jaw all males? My understanding is that the trout farms only sell females to protect their own business by preventing trout from reproducing on their own.

Ya hook jaws only appear in adult males around 2 years old and when they're ready to spawn. They grow the hook jaw as a defense to ward off younger males when spawning season arrives. As far as the trout farm only selling females, I'm not too sure but it makes sense business wise. They're gonna reproduce in the wild no matter what though....bound to happen at some point regardless of what gender they sell.

[Kingfish Addict]

I heard pudd had a fish kill last month is that true?

Yes, it was minor but it was multi-species. Trout, bass, catfish, shad, bluegill. Most likely culprit was probably stratification/lake turnover, happens when the weather shifts from hot to cold. Oxygen related. Google it, you'll understand it more once you read what stratification is...

[smokehound]

I could probably research this myself, or maybe Smokehound will chime in, but I'm just wondering...aren't the ones with the hook in the jaw all males? My understanding is that the trout farms only sell females to protect their own business by preventing trout from reproducing on their own.

I am not sure if they are sterile, however as I have caught females with healthy skeins full of fat ripe eggs ready to be laid, im assuming the average DVG stocker is not sterile. And sterile males would not develop hookjaws.

I doubt they only sell females, which is pretty much useless, as they will just breed with the resident feral trout..

I could see them doing that with very rare strains, though.

Edit: I've caught a few males as well. The hookjaw is pretty much like fish pubes hahaha