Catching My First Splake

[UPSmallie]

Splake are pretty rare, but if you can find where they are concentrated you have a good shot at catching one.  Was able to go and fish one of the few places in Michigan where you can catch splake from a public dock.  You can only catch these guys from shore in the spring or fall since that's when water temperatures are cool enough for the fish to cooperate.  Went 1/3 using fresh, uncleaned smelt on a homemade fluorocarbon quickstrike rig under a bobber.  It was the coolest thing because when they would hit, they wouldn't pull your bobber down a few feet, but would rather just suck the bobber barely beneath the water's surface.  You'd then reel in and if the fish was still there, try and set the hook on the hybrid of a brook and lake trout.  Heck of a fun time.

This one was 22 inches and 4.27 lbs.  The crazy thing is I lost one much bigger than this before I could get it to the net.  Fish On!

 

 

[Darren.]

Congrats! Interesting catch!

[UPSmallie]

Thanks!  Happy Easter

[lonnie g]

never heard of one. congrats on the catch tho. are they good eating? 

[UPSmallie]

Thanks, yeah they taste like normal trout that you'd buy at the store, except with a natural cedar wood smoke kind of flavor.  Probably not the best tasting of the trout species, but definitely flavorful. 

[Dwight Hottle]

I'm not an expert on splake but your fish looks like a lake trout to me. 

[jr231]

1 hour ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I'm not an expert on splake but your fish looks like a lake trout to me. 

If I'm not mistaken it is lake trout and brown trout mixed... Right ? 

[J Francho]

4 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

If I'm not mistaken it is lake trout and brown trout mixed... Right ? 

 

No, a splake is from a male brook trout and female lake trout, then the resulting F1 males are crossed back with a female laker, resulting in a hybrid that is 75% lake trout and 25% brook trout.

 

I think it just looks like a laker, but then again, I've never caught a splake.

[UPSmallie]

Hmmn.  Good point.  I just assumed it was a splake since everything caught there tends to be either a pike or a splake.  I can definitely see the similarities of either one.  If I catch another the next time I go there I'll post a pic.  Here's a picture of a splake caught in the same area ice-fishing for somewhat of a reference.  The dots along the body are all circles, whereas the lake trout has more irregular shapes.  Truthfully, maybe lake trout/splake hybrid?

 

 

 

[CoBass]

11 hours ago, UPSmallie said:

Hmmn.  Good point.  I just assumed it was a splake since everything caught there tends to be either a pike or a splake.  I can definitely see the similarities of either one.  If I catch another the next time I go there I'll post a pic.  Here's a picture of a splake caught in the same area ice-fishing for somewhat of a reference.  The dots along the body are all circles, whereas the lake trout has more irregular shapes.  Truthfully, maybe lake trout/splake hybrid?

 

 

 

I think both fish you posted are splake, just not the same type. The one on the ice looks like a standard male brookie/female laker hybrid. The other fish looks like an F1 hybrid which is the result of a male splake/female laker hybrid. The F1's are 75% laker and 25% brookie so they tend to have stronger lake trout characteristics. 

 

Both of the fish you posted have round markings and the tails are not as flat as a brook trout, and not as deeply forked as a lake trout. They both look like splake to me.

[J Francho]

17 hours ago, UPSmallie said:

Truthfully, maybe lake trout/splake hybrid?

 

A splake is a lake/brook hybrid, as I explained above.  The main thing to look for in a laker are vermiculite patterns on the dorsal surface.  A splake will be spotted.  Both can have spots on the sides.

 

Either way, good looking fish.

[UPSmallie]

Ah ok thanks