Yes, there are lake trout in Lindbergh Lake

As I was heading over to Seeley Lake for the weekend, I ran into a friend who has a cabin in the Swan Valley.  Hey, he said, I heard that there are now lake trout in Lindbergh Lake.  Yes, I said, I can confirm that rumor.  Here is a 29.5" lake trout I caught on Lindbergh Lake on Sunday.

How do you usually prepare lake trout to eat? I have only eaten one fish. I pan fried some of it and it wasnt my favorite. I smoked the rest of it and it was pretty good. Have you noticed a difference in taste between large and small lake trout?

Nice fish btw

Lake trout are great cooked, and they are great smoked.  Any salmon recipe will work well with lake trout.  Here are a couple of no-brainer recipes:

Put black pepper and peach mango salsa on a lake trout fillet, throw it in the oven at 425 degrees, and cook it until it's done.

Put black pepper, good quality mustard, and honey on a lake trout fillet, swirl it around to mix up the ingredients, throw it in the oven at 425 degrees, and cook it until it's done.

If I get a chance, I'll post a couple of my favorite more complicated lake trout recipes.

In general, in my area of Montana I haven't noticed any significant differences between the flavor of large lake trout and the flavor of small lake trout.  But the flavor of fish depends on what they eat, and that may be quite different from lake to lake.  For example, in Flathead Lake, the smaller lake trout which are hanging out on the bottom eating Mysis shrimp are a dark orange color, but the larger lake trout which eat mostly other fish are a lighter yellow or squash color.  The lake trout from Lindbergh Lake are all a dark orange, even the large ones (30-36 inches), although there aren't any Mysis shrimp in Lindbergh Lake, and I think they taste better than the lake trout from Flathead lake.

Lake trout and pike tend to concentrate mercury in their flesh, and the larger lake trout have higher levels of this toxin.  I eat a lot of fish, so I tend to keep and eat smaller lake trout and pike, and give away the larger fish.

Thanks. I will have to give those a try. Im not a big fan of the taste of any type of trout. I like catching them though, and occasionally I have to bring home a floater. I think the key for me is going to be cooking them with lots of seasonings and other ingredients to cover the trouty flavor.

The one lake trout I ate was a larger one at 36 inches. The meat was a light orange color. I think their main diet in Odell lake is Kokanee, but this one had about a 16 inch rainbow in its stomach.

I don't like the flavor of rainbow, brown, and cutthroat trout when they're cooked.  The flavor and texture are boring to me.  I do like them when they're smoked.

But I like lake trout a lot, both when cooked and when smoked.  I think it's similar to the taste of salmon, and as good as many kinds of salmon.  That's why I do a lot of lake trout fishing.

Pete, do your trout come from cold water lakes,  or lakes that heat up a lot when they're fished?   I've noticed that trout from warmer waters do not taste good.

I also tend to like lake trout,  but have only had them from Chelan.

Lake trout tend to hang out on the bottom of lakes.  They don't like warm water, and if shallower water near shore warms up, they move out into deeper colder water.  The lakes in which I fish for lake trout don't warm up that much in the summer, and they have deep areas (120-380 feet deep) for the lake trout to retreat to.  I haven't noticed any difference between the flavor of lake trout caught while ice fishing and the flavor of lake trout caught during the summer. I haven't fished for lake trout in shallow lakes which warm up, so I don't know if and how the temperature affects the flavor of lake trout at different times of the year. 

I suspect that what lake trout are eating has a bigger influence on how they taste.  Old timers from Montana say that lake trout caught in Flathead Lake used to be way too oily.  But after the introduction of Mysis shrimp to the lake, the population of Kokanee crashed and almost disappeared.  Now the lake trout from Flathead Lake taste very good, and are not at all oily.  This may be due to the fact that they aren't eating kokanee any more.

I haven't been fishing for rainbow, brown, and cutthroat trout in lakes in the summer, so I don't know how the flavor of those species is affected by the temperature of the water.

Ah, I only meant the rainbows etc,  lake trout are almost always in cold water.   Chelan has mysis as well,  probably why the fish taste good.