A Fish Tale from Fish Lake

[scubadown16]

Thursday Oct 2,2008 Justin Fox and Myself left Ft. Collins for a 8 hour drive over to Fish Lake Utah. We meet up with Mike Ban, Chad, Duke, and Jordon Stoup. We had all rented a cabin at fish lake in preperation for some really cold weather. We all woke up to some beautiful weather on Friday and set out to scout out the lake that would be our finaly test in the 2008 Rocky Mountain Spearfishing series. Jordon and Chad were in the water first and right away Jordon nailed a beautiful Splake trout (splake trout our a cross bread between Lake Trout and Brook Trout). Justin and I get in and Justin picks up a nice one as well in the 17 pound range. This would be a new state record. But the record wouldn't last long. Later in the day Duke nails a bigger one edging out Justins record. Chad and myself were having a tuff time finding the big ones but we both were having a ton of fun diving in this clear mountain lake that sits at 9300 feet in the middle of Utah. I finally find a nice trout and put a kill shot into it. A couple dives later I am coming up from the bottom when three huge trout come buzzing by me. I have never seen a trout this big ever. I would have to say it was close to 30 pounds. I end up coming up screaming to Justin " Oh my god, oh my god" Justin comes over and asks if I am alright? I tell him I just seen this huge trout that scared the hell out of me. We end up coming back to our cabin to weight the fish we had shot and see what the new records are. Mike McGuire had just got his scale certified so this would not be a problem. The real problem was determining what is a splake and what is a lake trouth sense they look so close. Not only this but we couldn't find a DNR guy to sign off on our catch.

Tournament day. We are all excited to get out and get some big fish again but the day as turned cold and snowy. Over night a cold front had moved in and dumped some snow on us. The outside temp was in the thirtys with the water temp being in the low 50ish area. We end registaring 15 competitors from all over and set out at 9am for this 6 hour meet. Justin and Myself head back across the lake and get in. On my first run I pick up a couple suckers as I am reloading my gun I see this huge trout swimming below me slowly. I line up a shot from the surface and fire. My shaft misses to the side but the fish is unaware of what has happened. I quickly reload as I am swimming above the fish. As soon as my gun is reloaded I look down but can't see the trout anymore. This would be the only oppertunity on a big trout all day for me. Justin on the other hand would show that he is a true Champion by picking up two big splake and a large Lake trout. We moved areas a couple times and was headed back to the dock early because of how cold it was. When we noticed Jordon and Chad talking to Cory whos boat was not working. Cory finally got his boat running and they all headed back to the ramp. Justin tells me he wants to check one more spot. So we head back over to were we had been getting some of the big trout. We are working the area with one diver up and one diver down. To make sure we cover everything. Justin is down when I see him start kicking on a fish. He pulls the trigger on a nice carp. This fish would prove to be the fish of the whole tournament series for him. We rolled back to the cabin and start weighing in all the fish. 14 out of 15 competitors ended up with fish. Christian Baker from Vail Colorado would be our tournament winner with lots of carp and suckers. But the real excitement would be to see who would be our series Grand Champion. Cory from Utah was leading the series after 3 tournaments. And was able to smash the state record for Lake Trout with his new record lake trout of 24 pounds. Fallowed by Mike McGuire, myself,Justin,and then Jordan. When all the fish were weighted in. Cory would fall to second as well as Mike McGuire, and Myself would fall. But Mike Ban with his new record 25 pound Splake, Duke, and Justin would all raise their standings. Justin ended up beating out everyone by 7 points. The last carp that he took was a 9 pounder and was the difference in him winning the championship.
Everyone enjoyed eating a hot meal provided by Bruce Boyd on this cold day. As I pulled out the prizes provided by our fabulouse sponsors. Pelaj, Imersion, and Atomic provided our series with over 1000 dollars each in gear to make sure everyone would receive something nice. Our top 5 competitors in the Grand Championship also received additional prizes too. In total we gave away 5 guns from Imersion, Orca, and Spearfishingworld.com. We gave away knives,hats,shirts,kill spikes,and posters from Pelaj. We even gave away a E-Trex GPS provided by Dive Rescue International. Plus a ton of other gear provided by Armor Bags, HammerHead, HardCoreSpearfishing.com, High Plains Scuba, Helter Skeletons, Otter Box, Lucky Joes Bar and Grill, Stone House Pub, Monster Energy, DUI, and 20 Fathoms.
Justin and myself packed up and headed for home on Sunday morning with Mike McGuire, His son, and Christian Baker getting back out on the lake one last time to see if they could break any of the records that were brought in the day before. Turns out that they couldn't but they did manage to shot a nice 20 pounder.

I want to personally thank each and everyone of the competitors who came out in the cold and snow to compete. Along with Bruce Boyd for providing an out standing meal for everyone.

Thank you to all my sponsors for helping me put on this series. It wouldn't have been as competitive without you all.

Last but not least I want to send out a huge shout out and BIG THANK YOU to Mike Ban aka Skidoo aka Silver Back. He was my silent partner in this whole thing. He helped with most everything and had to put up with my tantrums the whole time. So thank you Mike for sticking it out with me...


James Hardesty

[scubadown16]

more pics

[scubadown16]

pics

[Stick 'EM]

GREAT PICS. Looks like a great time, with some big fish. Congrats on the records guys. How deep were you finding the splake and lakers?

[kingfisherflesh]

Awesome monster fish. Wish we could lay into trout and the such over here.

[Erik Sun]

Those are some fat fish!! Nice job guys... in the snow, that is gnarly!

Great job Cory, CONGRATULATIONS on your Pending WR!!!!

Erik Sun
Rabitech USA

[Rocky Mountain Spearo]

Cory, why did you delete your post? Water too hot for you?

[element]

Thanks to all (James, Mike, etc.) for their hard work in putting this together and to the sponsors for donating the great prizes. (I took home prizes from Hammerhead, 20 Fathoms, Atomic, and Otterbox.)

Here is the pending Utah State Record Lake Trout (Mackinaw). Also a pending World Record.

24.42 lbs. Taken with a Rabitech Stealth 90cm open muzzle in about 40 feet of water.

-Cory

[Rocky Mountain Spearo]

Just messin with ya, glad to see you back though. I am sure you are aware of the outrage of SOME of the trout lovers.

[element]

Originally Posted by CRH

Water too hot for you?

Thanks for the poke.

It hot alright, but I have seen this since I started diving in SoCal when I was 16. I have seen it in Hawaii. Its nothing new. There will always be people who dont understand freedive spearfishing. Those who think its cheating or easy.

There is a quote from a movie called Blue Water Hunters. It goes something like this...
"I am from a race of hunters, and there is no place for hunters left in this world."

When I hear the angry complaints of others about spearfishing that rings in my head.

I have kept quiet and laid low, but I need to stick up for the sport I love. So here it goes...

1 - It was done legally.

2 - I personally feel there isn't much of a difference in taking a fish earlier in the year or later in the year. The only difference is the fish had one more season before it spawned. Keep in mind these were pre-spawn fish, not post-spawn so they wernt all tired and just sitting there after they released their eggs. All the fish I saw were moving fast. Oh yeah, I saw many other big fish swimming around. Guys there are plenty of fish in the lake.

3 - It takes skill and hard work to find, stalk, and hunt these fish. (50 degree water, 30-35 degrees outside, rain, snow, wind, diving to 40 feet on a single breath of air for longer than a minute at altitudes of 8800 feet to shoot a fish of a lifetime? Please tell me how this is easy? This fish didn't just sit there, it was moving fast and all I had was a breath of air hoping I didn't black out.)

4 - Carp eat way more lake trout eggs than the few fish that might have spawned that we took this weekend. Why was the carp eradication not mentioned??? How nice of these divers to take out carp. We could have easily just shot trout and left, but we understand the ecology. We understand that carp are the most detrimental thing to the game fish in the lakes and reservoirs here in North America. We helped the lake trout population out this year by taking well over a hundred carp out of that lake that would have been feeding on the newly hatched lake trout eggs.

5 - DWR was there and they made sure we did everything right. No laws were broken. The DWR checked lengths and limits.

6 - I will probably never shoot another Lake Trout for years if ever. I have been able to take a trophy fish and I know it and don't take it for granted. I have been a rod and reel fisherman for over 20 years. Diving for 16. How long does it take before you earn the right to take a trophy fish?

7 - This tournament made freedive spearfishing look larger than it is. There are just a hand full of us spearfisherman here in Utah and a few from nearby states. None of the divers had dove or taken fish from fish lake this year. Most wont make it back. Was it bad they took one or two? They brought money to the economy and the DWR.

Lets worry about the carp eradication, the poaching, and the illegal activities. Why such hatred toward someone who follows the law?

Hopefully these few points will help educate those who dont understand the sport and our form of taking fish to the dinner table.

Regards,
Cory

[Rocky Mountain Spearo]

excelent post and very appreciated.