Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Old fish skin mounts

As mentioned above: Lahontan Cutthroat Trout pair in spring breeding plumage. About a 21-inch male on top and a lesser female below. Captured in 1982 from Oregon's stocked Mann Lake with Nevada's Pyramid Lake being the original source.

Mann Lake was artificial tackle only and was mostly catch and release. From memory, there was a window where we were allowed a 2-fish daily limit. Virtually unknown out in the desert until we had some exceptional water years and the lake and fish expanded significantly. Some visiting writers published their experiences and it went from an essentially unused/unknown resource, even on holidays, to a spot with 5 or 6 planes landing on the road and a dozen Winnebago's with barking dogs and screaming kids about every weekend. With our extended drought over the past decade, it was reduced from about a square mile to a dust bowl about 2 years back.

Given this winter's precip, it may refill, but I don't know if it will be restocked or not. Speculation was its demise was due to extended drought and possibly a nearby pivot that lowered the water table sustaining the lake. The trout lived solely on insect life, did not have the chubs available in Pyramid, and could not attain the 30"+ dimensions found in the original source. In the early 2000's some bait fisherman inadvertently stocked the lake with goldfish that matured, reproduced, and stirred up the bottom such that vegetation ceased growing.

The trout turned into big headed snakes with few insects to forage upon. The entire lake was killed, and then restocked. Our dry decade started in about 2010 when both lake and fishery began shrinking.

It was one of those desert spots that we got to experience in the best of times and was one of those places where one could start out a child with toothy 18 to 20-inch fish being the average. Catches of up to 80 or 90 per day were possible mostly on wooly buggers and gold ribbed hares ears for us.

I do like the old skin mounts thinking that scale patterns etc are more evident and realistic.


Apologize for the picture quality, as this is the first image I've ever posted that was secured with a phone. Don't tell Cookie.