Lake trout eats bull trout, I eat lake trout

The lakes in the Clearwater and Swan drainages here in Montana aren’t going to free of ice and available for kayak fishing for a couple of weeks.  On the lower elevation lakes, ice was finally starting to melt away from the shores on the weekend of April 5-6, and by next weekend waders will be required to get on the ice.



But it still looked like winter on Lindbergh Lake on April 5.



I caught 30” and 27” lake trout.



The 30” lake trout had quite a potbelly.



And here’s why it had an obesity problem.



A 14.5 inch fish in a 30 inch lake trout.



I frequently catch lake trout which have fish in their stomachs which are half their length.  This fish was too long to fit entirely in the lake trout’s stomach, so its tail was sticking out into the lake trout’s mouth and throat, which is why its tail isn’t digested yet.  But the lake trout nevertheless chomped on my 8" bait fish.  Quite a ravenous appetite.



Orange spots on its sides, and no lines or spots on its tail – it’s a bull trout!  This bull trout was more endangered than most of its species.



The water is open on Flathead Lake.  If the weather is tolerable this weekend, I’m going to finally get in my first day of kayak fishing for the season.

Nice catch man!

So from an AOTY standpoint, that's like a 288.75 pt fish!...Nice!

So from an AOTY standpoint, that's like a 288.75 pt fish!...Nice!

If only I had caught it from a kayak.

yea, there is that small issue...plus the mouth is open! 

Still a nice fish and a great story...thanks for sharing the pics!

Wow that is neat. I've caught some gluttons before but that one beats them !

Lake trout always look pretty corpulent and now we know why.

That's cool.

Cool!!!!