Yellowstone Lake 2015 cutts & lakers

What Map

Active member
Joined
Jun 23, 2012
Messages
1,146
Location
Bozone
We finally made it down to Yellowstone Lake for our first trip of the season. Spring came early but we found too many other fun outings that kept us away from the Park. We had solid action during the two days we fished. We ended up smoking five lake trout and threw back nearly a dozen cutts.

Diane with one of the cutts

HT Di+Cutt Yellow lake june 2015.jpg

A laker for the smoker

HT Di+laker Yellow lake june 2015.jpg

Cutt in net

HT cutt in net 2015.jpg

What Map with laker

HT SVT+Laker 2015 #2.jpg

Cutt showing colors in sun

HT cutt in net and sun 2015.jpg

In the smoker

HT lakers in smoker 2015.jpg

Grizz (I think) tracks on edge of lake one morning. Very near campground.

HT grizz tracks 2015.jpg
 
Did you brine those fish before you smoked them? I smoke a lot of fish, and am curious of your method. We catch lakers occasionally, but I rarely keep them. Usually marinade in white wine and sweet onion and grill.

Nice fish. Those cuts are giants.
 
Yesss, get those lake trout outta there :) and that's a nice-sized bear--caught this 2 y/o-ish grizz and her sibling my last trip through the beartooths, love getting into the 'stone!
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 11.10.51 AM.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 11.10.51 AM.jpg
    48.5 KB · Views: 631
Did you brine those fish before you smoked them? I smoke a lot of fish, and am curious of your method. We catch lakers occasionally, but I rarely keep them. Usually marinade in white wine and sweet onion and grill.

Nice fish. Those cuts are giants.

I used to brine my fish with salt and sugar but I don’t anymore. Don’t seem to find the time. I gut the fish as soon as I have landed them in the boat. They are then on ice within a few hours at most. They stay refrigerated until I put them in my pellet smoker, usually the day after I get home. Even at the lowest setting it burns at a little over 200 degrees. After a couple of hours they are done.
I am very good at judging when to stop cooking whole fish. You want to be able to fairly easily pull the fins and their bones out of the carcass. Then with my fingers, a fork and a very sharp knife I separate all the meat from the skeleton. If it is over cooked the bone release from the vertebrae and stay in the meat and must be removed individually.
If the fish is under cooked then some of the raw meat stays attached to the skeleton and cannot be used. This is not a huge problem, just a waste of some meat.
For lake trout I feed all the skins to by black lab. The skin is very tough.
I try to keep as much meat as possible in big pieces from the fish. As I lay the pieces in a Tupperware container I sprinkle with salt, Mrs. Dash pepper blends and squirt on lime juice. The meat can then be frozen.
I use this meat just as I use tuna from a can. I also fry it in butter as a side to eggs in the morning. It is all good.

Here is what they look like right out of the smoker:

HT smoked laker july 2015.jpg
 
Congratulations on the awesome memories that you made. Thanks for sharing the pics.
 
I make a lot of smoked salmon goods. Lasagna and chili are interesting and quite good.

Cleaning up the last 20lbs of last year's catch. Freezer is about to get filled up again.
 

Attachments

  • 2015-07-04 21.14.27.jpg
    2015-07-04 21.14.27.jpg
    436.6 KB · Views: 306

Forum statistics

Threads
110,805
Messages
1,935,073
Members
34,883
Latest member
clamwc
Back
Top