Do your ever keep a trout??

I've been known to keep and cook a fish here and there...as long as the regs permit it I don't see the harm.

Yes I do, but usually only when I'm fishing alpine lakes.

Cliff said:

Yes I do, but usually only when I'm fishing alpine lakes.

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If i am staying the night, I will grill a fish. TASTEY!

Peyton00 said:

If i am staying the night, I will grill a fish. TASTEY!

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This is pretty much the only time I keep a trout--if I'm planning on cooking it that night over an open fire, preferably within sight of the water I caught it out of.

Funny, I quit fishing when I was a kid because I caught too many trout and therefore had to eat it because C&R was unheard of around my friends/family.

I found out that if I didn't fish, there usually wasn't enough fish to go around, so I got to eat something else.

I hated the taste of fish until I was in my early twenties...now I love it all.

Sushi was what turned me around on fish.

I haven't kept a fish since I was ~12.

dld

Kept a couple a few years ago from a lowland lake that has a good population of carryovers.
Both were around 18". One had nice, nearly flawless fins and the other not so much.
After I put them on a stringer, the fish with the nice fins stayed nice and bright while the other one turned a bit dark.
I should have known better right there but took it home anyway since it had been on the stringer.
The one fish cut nice and red while the other one had nasty looking white meat....it ended up in the yard recycling bin.
It must have been either a recent jumbo or triploid plant. The other fish that I ate tasted excellent.

I also ate some hatchery searun cuts out of the Cowlitz that were good eating.
SF

I keep a lot of kokanee (according to WDFW they are classified as a trout) with most ending up in the smoker. They are excellent smoked (better than any salmon except a fresh Columbia river spring caught near tide water) and in much demand from various family members, friends, etc. Smoked kokanee filets are the foundation of many boat or tail gate lunches; I'm sure the only reason folks hunt or fish with me is to access those lunch - the kokanee is that good!

Curt

Rarely. The last one was in BC on Lake Tanwax. A bruiser rainbow that ate a leech deep and was bleeding bad. Blood red meat that tasted like mud.

Yes.

If regulations permit, I keep a fish most trips, sometimes two. One to eat at the lake I caught it at, and one to take home to eat with the girlfriend.

I'm picky about my fish though. As Stonefish alluded to, not all trout are created equal. First off I won't take them from every lake - some lakes produce tastier fish than others.

Generally, after lake choice, the second element that must be present for me to "take" a fish, it would have to be big enough, but not too large... 14-22" is about right.

Finally, and probably most important, the fish must feel firm. I won't take any soft fish, no matter how silver they look initially. They almost invariably end up mushy and often "muddy" tasting.

Edited to add - I also won't take a fish early or even in the middle of the day if it's warm out and I'm not heading in anytime soon. I want to be able to bleed and clean that fish ASAP - the difference it makes to the meat is significant.

Not a big fan of the taste of trout. Of course, it could have been the way I prepared/cooked it, not really sure.

That said, smoked trout is off the hook!

I used to keep fish when my dad was alive as he liked to eat them. I caught a planted trout out of the 7 lakes area one time. I was in a rubber boat and no net. I had to go to shore with it. It was laying eggs all the way to shore. I kept it and after I cooked it, it tasted like cardboard.I don't think I kept anything after that one.

Warm water fish are plentiful near me so I never keep trout anymore. I have tried to cook trout but nowhere near as good as walleye, crappie, gills, pike, catfish. Just my personal preference.

I like a good meal from trout

Smalma said:

I keep a lot of kokanee

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yummy

I like to keep a few when camping and I will keep them if they obviously won't survive.

Alpine brookies rule.

Dewayne said:

Warm water fish are plentiful near me so I never keep trout anymore. I have tried to cook trout but nowhere near as good as walleye, crappie, gills, pike, catfish. Just my personal preference.

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Walleye are delicious fish. Might be second to halibut. Seriously.