# Splake???



## Truelife (Feb 6, 2009)

I think these are splake, but they just seem to look a little different than other splake I have caught. Got them on the boulders last week.

Your thoughts?


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Yes, definitely Splakes......Redish colored fins, uniform roundish spots and tail fins that are not deeply forked.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

Fowlmouth said:


> Yes, definitely Splakes......Redish colored fins, uniform roundish spots and tail fins that are not deeply forked.


but forked enough to not be confused with a brook trout.

Also, look at the shape of the fish. A brook trout with similar length would either (a) look like a football or (b) have a huge head and skinny body.

Which lake? That would also help you with identification.


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## Truelife (Feb 6, 2009)

Got these in fish creek. I also got a couple of smaller one's that really looked like straight lake trout. I suspect they were splake as well though.


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## spencerD (Jan 14, 2014)

Definitely Splake. Color of fins doesn't play into identification, as far as I'm concerned, Fowlmouth. I've never looked at em that way, anyways.










Red fins here, and this is a brookie without a doubt. The lake I was fishing is brookies only.

And Fish Creek has a nice population of splake swimming around there.

This brookie clearly has a long, flat tail with no fork in it. 









Your catches all had a nice fork to the tails. So yep, you got yourself some splake! Probably tasty fish, too, out of Fish Creek.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

spencerD
I assumed the OP was comparing the splake to lake trout, that is the only reason why I mentioned red fins and forked tail. A lake trout has a very defined forked tail, more than the splakes do. I should have clarified in my first post.


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## spencerD (Jan 14, 2014)

Fowlmouth said:


> spencerD
> I assumed the OP was comparing the splake to lake trout, that is the only reason why I mentioned red fins and forked tail. A lake trout has a very defined forked tail, more than the splakes do. I should have clarified in my first post.


No you're good man, I wasn't getting on ya or anything. Just meant that I've never heard of fin color being a factor in brookies or splake. But the tail is a surefire way to tell the difference, and the blue halos on brookies. They're both gorgeous fish.


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## brookieguy1 (Oct 14, 2008)

Nice, fat splake! Crazy how the usually healthy lake below is full of stunted fish. Overstocking and underharvesting. We really need to find a balance on some of those southern lakes. I think you could count more on fewer fish being stocked as a trophy management plan than harvest being counted on to control numbers. Some folks just refuse to kill a fish, regardless of the results.
Fewer fishermen and fewer stocked fish would be my ultimate answer, but if more fishermen AND fewer fish work for bigger fish, that'll take a close second. Stunted, skinny fish in those unbelievably fertile waters are just wrong! Stock 50 sterile brook trout in certain lakes and I would be willing to risk a zero-fish day for a rare, tough to catch super-fed pig.


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## Truelife (Feb 6, 2009)

brookieguy1 said:


> Nice, fat splake! Crazy how the usually healthy lake below is full of stunted fish. Overstocking and underharvesting. We really need to find a balance on some of those southern lakes. I think you could count more on fewer fish being stocked as a trophy management plan than harvest being counted on to control numbers. Some folks just refuse to kill a fish, regardless of the results.
> Fewer fishermen and fewer stocked fish would be my ultimate answer, but if more fishermen AND fewer fish work for bigger fish, that'll take a close second. Stunted, skinny fish in those unbelievably fertile waters are just wrong! Stock 50 sterile brook trout in certain lakes and I would be willing to risk a zero-fish day for a rare, tough to catch super-fed pig.


 Interesting you mention the fact that some refuse to keep a fish. We were with a scout troop so they had fish or nothing on the menu for a couple of the meals. We ate fish. However we fished close by some other guys one day that caught some beautiful tiger trout. They had one kid with them and he caught a LARGE tiger trout. I heard the one guy telling the other that it was probably a bigger fish than any of them had ever caught yet they still turned him free after taking several photos.

Good for them, it's great that people are willing to do that, and teach the youngen's that as well. On the other hand several in our group were watching with lustful eyes wishing that fish would have come to their hands. I'm sure he would have been on a plate by the end of the day.

Myself, I'm a taxidermist so I like to keep those large ones for other reasons.

Always interesting to watch the different opinions.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

spencerD said:


> ... I've never heard of fin color being a factor in brookies or splake.
> 
> ...the blue halos on brookies.


you won't use fin color, but you will use blue halo's? You should reconsider your stance on the halo's. Splake get them too....


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## spencerD (Jan 14, 2014)

PBH said:


> you won't use fin color, but you will use blue halo's? You should reconsider your stance on the halo's. Splake get them too....


In my experience, almost all of the splake I've caught in waters where brookies are as well, the splake don't have the blue halos. That, combined with the forked tail, work great at telling the two apart.

I've seen a few splake with blue halos but nowhere near as many as I've seen on brookies


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

spencerD said:


> In my experience, almost all of the splake I've caught in waters where brookies are as well, the splake don't have the blue halos. That, combined with the forked tail, work great at telling the two apart.
> 
> I've seen a few splake with blue halos but nowhere near as many as I've seen on brookies


I think using blue halos to identify brook trout (vs. splake) is similar to using slash marks to identify cutts (vs. rainbows). While it might work _most of the time_, it is NOT the rule. Splake frequently get blue halos, just as genetically pure rainbow trout can also develop slash marks (and cutts sometimes don't!).

But, utilizing multiple distinguishing characteristics (like you seem to be doing) is always good practice. Tail forks, spotting patterns, stocking reports, size and shape characteristics, etc can and should be used to determine what the fish is. Even then, it isn't always easy.


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## spencerD (Jan 14, 2014)

PBH said:


> I think using blue halos to identify brook trout (vs. splake) is similar to using slash marks to identify cutts (vs. rainbows). While it might work _most of the time_, it is NOT the rule. Splake frequently get blue halos, just as genetically pure rainbow trout can also develop slash marks (and cutts sometimes don't!).
> 
> But, utilizing multiple distinguishing characteristics (like you seem to be doing) is always good practice. Tail forks, spotting patterns, stocking reports, size and shape characteristics, etc can and should be used to determine what the fish is. Even then, it isn't always easy.


That's a good comparison. The blue halos and the shape of the tail to a splake/brookie comp is like the combo of slashes and spotting pattern for cutts and bows. Use em both, you'll have fewer problems spotting fish once you fish enough.

As for that pic - brookie on the far left (has the characteristic blue halos and flat tail) then the next two are splake. That last splake doesn't have blue halos (as far as I can tell from the pics, might be there but very faintly) and has the forked tail.

It's been very rarely that I've caught splake with the blue halos, though. One from Joe's Valley had them, and one on Boulder. Aside from that, the splake I catch look very...splakey. haha.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

There are a couple of places on the Fish Lake Plateau where the brookies have forked tails. Not always, but I've pulled in a lot of fork-tail brookies.

Twin Ponds has a bunch and 7 Mile Creek has a good mix as well. It's obvious that they're brookies, but I suppose in 7 Mile, there is a chance that some splake could have found their way in.

I've never seen one in there, but it's plausible. Much like catching a TM from 7 Mile would be "plausible".


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