The Quadfather
10/8/2014 12:00:00 PMI certainly don't want to take away from your beautiful hiking experience, but while the one fish in the pic. looks more colorful and not like your "Typical" rainbow. The marks along the side are called, Parr marks. Juvenile native fish (rainbows) can look very different from the lowland lakes smaller rainbows that we are used to seeing.
I catch rainbows that are exactly like this one, in alpine river settings. They have those beautiful colored Parr marks. Took me along time to find the info. regarding Parr marks on juv. rainbows.
But that being said.... you caught another fish that you said had a pretty good yellow shine, who knows..?
Sometime go to Central Market in Shoreline, 155th And Aurora. Golden trout for sale in the seafood section all day long. (When they are in)
Completly different looking fish. But, then again if you Google images on Goldens, you will see there are apparetnly some different looking variables.
Thanks for your story!
I catch rainbows that are exactly like this one, in alpine river settings. They have those beautiful colored Parr marks. Took me along time to find the info. regarding Parr marks on juv. rainbows.
But that being said.... you caught another fish that you said had a pretty good yellow shine, who knows..?
Sometime go to Central Market in Shoreline, 155th And Aurora. Golden trout for sale in the seafood section all day long. (When they are in)
Completly different looking fish. But, then again if you Google images on Goldens, you will see there are apparetnly some different looking variables.
Thanks for your story!
whorde
10/8/2014 1:10:00 PMIf you fire up google images, a standard "golden trout" is quite yellow, it has a red side instead of pink like a rainbow, and it has a double line of big black blotches on the top and bottom of the red line. So in the picture of the littler fish above, it is definitely not silver like a normal rainbow, and it definitely has the ghostly outline of a double line of black blotches, and honestly it looks to me like the coloration is more on the red side of pink than not. So that's what I'm going on in terms of it being mixed. Also the other fish is quite more yellow than a regular rainbow, although lacking in blotches. And the other one I didn't get a picture of was way more yellow. All that being said, the fact I caught one actually full blood rainbow out of the lake I find to be surprising. We know it was stocked repeatedly. But it's been a decade since it was stocked with goldens, so I would expect almost every fish in the lake to be mixed at this point. Going there and catching a full blood golden would be like catching a unicorn. And yeah, I know those "golden" trout you speak of at Central Market. From what I read on the internet, those aren't golden trout at all. Look for palomino trout on google images, and you find something much more like what they have at Central Market.
cwbraue
10/11/2014 4:42:00 PMIt's good to know there are still fish in there, though I am highly dubious about goldens though. They planted some in the 70's but I've never seen any there. That is a great hike though I don't know why everyone claims it's so hard, there are much more grueling trails in Washington.
whorde
10/13/2014 8:53:00 AMFrom the Fish & Wildlife website stocking charts:
Upper (Big) Greider Lake
Golden trout
Sep 30, 2006 1,230
Oct 2, 2004 1,230
Oct 12, 2002 1,200
Sep 25, 2001 1,224
Oct 15, 2000 1,224
As for the hike, it would be much more easy and straightforward if you had all day. Say you were going on a Friday at noon and were staying through Sunday. But if you want to make a day trip of it, then you have to pound the hike, as every minute you're on the hill is a minute less for fishing. Especially this time of year when there's 4 hours less daylight. And those minutes are very, very important, as it's a good sized lake, and I can tell you after 2 visits with enough time to fish around quite a bit and honestly just watching the risers that there are clearly areas where the fish are, and areas where they're not, and I'm not talking!
Good luck to anyone who tries it!
By the way, Little Grieder does not seem promising at all. I saw some fish at the very start of it, but there are overlooks where you can see huge chunks of the more shallow, swampy part of Little Grieder, and from there - nothing moving anywhere. With the number of snags in Little Grieder, I would not take out a rubber raft. I am anxious enough in Big Grieder.
Upper (Big) Greider Lake
Golden trout
Sep 30, 2006 1,230
Oct 2, 2004 1,230
Oct 12, 2002 1,200
Sep 25, 2001 1,224
Oct 15, 2000 1,224
As for the hike, it would be much more easy and straightforward if you had all day. Say you were going on a Friday at noon and were staying through Sunday. But if you want to make a day trip of it, then you have to pound the hike, as every minute you're on the hill is a minute less for fishing. Especially this time of year when there's 4 hours less daylight. And those minutes are very, very important, as it's a good sized lake, and I can tell you after 2 visits with enough time to fish around quite a bit and honestly just watching the risers that there are clearly areas where the fish are, and areas where they're not, and I'm not talking!
Good luck to anyone who tries it!
By the way, Little Grieder does not seem promising at all. I saw some fish at the very start of it, but there are overlooks where you can see huge chunks of the more shallow, swampy part of Little Grieder, and from there - nothing moving anywhere. With the number of snags in Little Grieder, I would not take out a rubber raft. I am anxious enough in Big Grieder.