Fish ID?
 

Saw a fish right below the ice at Cow Lake the other day. It was about 2ft long...the water does magnify it, but it was really close to the ice so it shouldn't have been too much less than 2ft. Dark body...maybe dark green? Black spots. Fat as all get out. Slow moving. I can identify perch and pike from the top, but that's about it. Was it a big trout?

Yup could be 1 of them rainbows they stocked.

Probably, i believe that lakes stocked with brood stock rainbows so that would be the best bet.

Wow, I didn't realize they got so big, had some notion that brood stock would die before they got that big.

When I've looked in past hatchery reports i believe they average around 50cm each, not as fat as wild fish after a while (not very good at feeding compared to wild fish) but still pretty big. They used to throw them in Crowsnest Lake the odd time, pretty sick looking fish by mid summer.

could it have been a burbot? dark green with black spots don't sound like a trout to me. don't know if there in cow lake just a guess.

Rainbows have that kind of soft dark green with dark spots on the top half of their body...at least, the little rainbows I've caught do. Not sure if they keep those markings when they get to be bigger.

Don't know about burbot though, although it is a big enough lake for a few different species.

Yes it was a brood stock trout, they're nasty. They've been swimming around in concrete pools in a hatchery for a long time, they release them in the lake to retire them. They have scraped fins and tails and are just gross. I would much rather catch a 20+ inch trout that was stocked as a fry and grew by being smart and surviving on terrestrials and natural food. Way more of an accomplishment in my opinion.

The brood stocks are way darker than most natural lake fish that take on a silver appearance (like a steelhead). Fish can change their colors drastically over a few months but the description you gave definitely sounds like a big trout. I don't think there's burbot in Cow Lake either, I'd guess in that case pike would not have been needed.

sorry about that just a guess only caught 3 trout don't fish for them much . not to many places around edmonton. when we go stream fishing we go for grayling.

Grayling are tougher to catch than rainbows anyway mud slug, for me at least :lol: Three trips last summer, everyone else managed one, all i could catch was dozens of silly rainbows :ashamed:

Never had any luck in the streams, but gave that Wedge Pond a try in K-Country and had some luck.

i cann't catch rainbows spent 3 days last year at carson everyone caught fish but me.

Is there any Ling(Burbot) in Cow Lake?
Thats almost what it sounds like to me if it was 24".

what???3 days at carson not one????:confused: wow....pm me next time your up...you will catch all the trout you want:wave:

Most definitely not. 24 inches is about right for a brood stock trout.

Nuts, and I was all excited that I was going to catch Gigantor. Oh well, guess I'll fish for pike when I want to haul in something big.