Lowland Lake "Catchable" Rainbow Trout

[GoldenRing270]

Curious how everyone feels about these fish? Whether it be for eating or just fishing and catching.

Do you eat them?  Are you excited to catch them?

Feel free to comment.

[Cylvertip]

I love them for being the protein bars of the bass world......

[Buckhunter24]

Smoked or panfried in bacon grease is how I like them... far from the best but okay. I put neutral..

[bearpaw]

I would rather eat brookies or kokanee but I think rainbows are one of the best fish for kids to catch, nothing gets a kid more excited than a fish jumping repeatedly.

[MADMAX]

They are sure fun to catch on a still spring morning
I’ll keep over 16 inches
Otherwise catch and release

[Axle]

I catch them a lot while fishing for real food. Fun to catch but I throw them all back.

[Katmai Guy]

Taste way better if they've survived till the next year, but they are no different than eating farm raised ato antic salmon from costco, if you eat that.

[ghosthunter]

My wife loves to fish out of her kayak.
We would go after work three nights a week and she would limit out.
We smoke them up.

[ctwiggs1]

They make good crab bait, and the kids love em. 

I’ll cook one on occasion but I see it as junk food.

[millerwheeler]

There really.not great tasting when your raised on salmon , sea bass , and lincod . But my kids will fish for them.at the drop of a hat we usually bring there limits to our older neighbors who  live  on a very tight budget so I try to bring them fish  as often as possible and I bring them some meat every now and then

[tritt007]

Brine em and smoke em best way to eat em , kinda like a tule salmon without all the nasty slime and peeling skin (usually) haha .

[Dslayer]

Roll them in flour/corn flake crumbles after dipping them in milk, lemon pepper them, fry them crisp, smother in lemon, taste so good you don’t really notice the meat. Actually looking forward to them this spring.

[Hillbilly Zen]

Many nights as a kid they were dinner because it’s what we could afford. A stick to dig worms, a rope to tie the catch off through the gills, and a 10$ rod/reel combo from big 5 kept us fed many days.  It never occurred to me until this post that there were people who fished and DIDNT eat rainbow trout.  Cornmeal, salt, pepper, good to go.  If you have a surplus smoke them and can them bones and all.  I remove the skin before canning, and the bones are eliminated in the canning process.  I’d rather eat smoked canned trout than salmon honestly. 

[Karl Blanchard]

There are rainbow trout and then there are farm raised rainbow trout. I'll put the hurting on a plate of trout but it would take a zombie apocalypse before I'd eat one of those solf, white fleshed, trash fish they plant in the lakes.

[Jingles]

Don't even bother fishing in the summer Drilling holes in solid water is the only way I go good firm flesh and not muddy tasting

[Sutherland]

Great when smoked and fun to catch.

[Hillbilly Zen]

Don't even bother fishing in the summer Drilling holes in solid water is the only way I go good firm flesh and not muddy tasting

That’s probably wise but i’ve never tried it.  Rainbows have admittedly been replaced in my cupboards by a surplus of west slope cutts in Summer from “secret lake”. 

[Dhoey07]

There are a few lakes that I will keep and eat them. None of those lakes are “put and take”.

[Blacklab]

There fun, eat some and give away most.

[Stein]

The kids love to catch them, my son eats one fresh and the rest get transformed into Dungeness.

[Hillbilly Zen]

interesting some people use it as crab bait!  That, to me, seems like using fried chicken to catch a hot dog.  But to each their own 😜

[chiwawadan]

It always amazes me how many people on this board dislike eating these trout. To the point of calling it dog food.

It might not be halibut or sockeye, but it's still good eats.

[Jake Dogfish]

Unless you get a holdover they are for entertainment purposes only.  There are better baits, but they work for crab craws lings Halibut etc.  Most of the westside lakes are over-planted.  They do better on the eastside but so does just planting fry.

[Stein]

It always amazes me how many people on this board dislike eating these trout. To the point of calling it dog food.

It might not be halibut or sockeye, but it's still good eats.

Yeah, it isn't the worst thing for sure, I would just rather eat salmon or crab.  I would eat 100 trout before I ate some of the overseas farmed fish out there, particularly the super nasty bottom stuff like tilapia.

[WSU]

It always amazes me how many people on this board dislike eating these trout. To the point of calling it dog food.

It might not be halibut or sockeye, but it's still good eats.

I'm one of them I suppose.  I do like wild trout or trout that have been living in the wild (eating a non-pellet diet) for a while.  It's the mushy, pale-meat planters I don't care for.

[CP]

It always amazes me how many people on this board dislike eating these trout. To the point of calling it dog food.

It might not be halibut or sockeye, but it's still good eats.

Yeah, it isn't the worst thing for sure, I would just rather eat salmon or crab.  I would eat 100 trout before I ate some of the overseas farmed fish out there, particularly the super nasty bottom stuff like tilapia.

Yum, Tilapia ...

[OutHouse]

I really like catching the triploids with a small black lure with red tinsel from the shore or in a pontoon with a trolling motor. Have a caught many from the shore in the evening with my little five foot ugly stick. Sometime the fight is tremendous, sometime they don't really fight at all.

I eat them too. I'll fry the smaller ones in oil and will even eat that tail if it crisps up nice.

[CP]

I really like catching the triploids with a small black lure with red tinsel from the shore or in a pontoon with a trolling motor. Have a caught many from the shore in the evening with my little five foot ugly stick. Sometime the fight is tremendous, sometime they don't really fight at all.

I eat them too. I'll fry the smaller ones in oil and will even eat that tail if it crisps up nice.

How about a pic of that small black lure?

[wadu1]

Great when smoked and fun to catch.

[BigGoonTuna]

Good for breaking up the late winter monotony, but I throw everything but the holdovers back. They usually taste pretty good after they’ve spent a year in the lake.

[270Flat]

Fun to catch and get the kids fishing. Stickers get smoked 95% of the time. Will do scrambled eggs and smoked trout!!

[rainshadow1]

Flay out the boneless sections, they fry up pretty good. "Brine" the rest to fertilize plants with the nectar! (Just KEEP the dogs OUT of the reservoir!)

[Alchase]

It always amazes me how many people on this board dislike eating these trout. To the point of calling it dog food.

It might not be halibut or sockeye, but it's still good eats.

Yeah, it isn't the worst thing for sure, I would just rather eat salmon or crab.  I would eat 100 trout before I ate some of the overseas farmed fish out there, particularly the super nasty bottom stuff like tilapia.

Yum, Tilapia ...

Have you seen that 60 minutes special on Tilapia and Prawns from China and Vietnam?
They raise them in cesspool, literally human feces are their food.
Mass produced and sold everywhere in the US. The majority of tilapia in the US come from China and Vietnam. They grow extremely fast, and they spend nothing on feed.
When we were in Vietnam in 2018, we saw many Tilapia farms. Friggin nasty!
I could never eat Tilapia 

[OutHouse]

I really like catching the triploids with a small black lure with red tinsel from the shore or in a pontoon with a trolling motor. Have a caught many from the shore in the evening with my little five foot ugly stick. Sometime the fight is tremendous, sometime they don't really fight at all.

I eat them too. I'll fry the smaller ones in oil and will even eat that tail if it crisps up nice.

How about a pic of that small black lure?

No pic on my phone of one but no secrets here. I believe it is a 1/16 ounce black rooster tail with red tinsel in the tail part. Bi-mart seems to be the only retailer I can find the ones with red tinsel. If trolling or casting, I put a few crimp weights about two feet (maybe less) above the lure.

[cavemann]

if we are camping I'll eat them or if they are hooked too deep.  I usually just cut the leader and release.  As stated, kids have a blast catching them.  I've since found some honey holes for koks and pretty much only target those anymore.  I miss the triploid stocks, those were not bad eating.

[C-Money]

They are good for folks to catch. Lots of smiles every year thanks to planters.