theres this store where I live that is by a lake and it has pictures of fish caught in the lake. half the pictures are of stringers of cuttroat trout. one is 6lbs according to the scale he has it on. with a catch and release for this unique fishery in the salt, your allowed to keep them in lakes when they pass thru to spawn. not right, should be catch and release everywhere, not trying to start a negative thread but just wanted to share this with everyone. tight lines all, Ben

I think what happens is they fall into the regs on the lake.Lets say that the lake regs are over 14 inches then if the sea run is over 14 inches then it is legal!I am guessing but unless there are special rules on the lake stating that it is cutthroat release?It would be a hard one to enforce.It is a loop hole.You can still catch big sea runs in some of our lakes at the begining of the general opener.there are a couple of lakes that I still fish for them.c\r I think I know what lk. you are talking about and I used to have a friend that used to catch steelys in there and the outlet!

its also possible that the cut is a plant. the game dept. plants a lot of cutthroat trout in lakes.

there all searun

Hey guys, I know the lake also. The steelies we used to troll for are near the outlet and the hang around the inlet stream also. We need a regulation to protect those big cutties that over winter there. Makes me mad as hell you can kill those old, rare trout.

PS- I caught my biggest sea-run ever in the outlet stream while targeting steelies...a long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

If its the system I'm thinking of, the sea-runs are protected in the salt and the tributary leading to the lake. Seems like a common sense answer would be to have the WDFW add the lake into the Special Rules section with a provision for cutts.

I don't know if this fits in this catagory. Lake Cavanaugh in Skagit co. has some very big cutts in it. The lake empties via Pilchuck Creek. Which has or had a very good run of cutts. Used to catch fish up to 20" But to my knowledge the cutts don't get to the lake but I could be wrong. I just thought that I would add this. Also about 30 yrs ago the Dept of F & W planted salmon in the lake. Don't know if they took but fished the creek two yrs later and caught some jacks. The outlet of the lake has a small set of falls. I don't think any thing could get over it. Not enough water flowing over it. Jim S.