LAKE TROUT AND THE GREAT SMOKING CAPER

03/31/00

Earl English is six years my senior. He took me under his wing when I was eight or nine. Over the next decade, he taught me what he knew and learned about fishing and hunting. I'm sure he figured that, once I grew up, he wouldn't have to mentor me anymore.

Too bad. Here I was on the phone a couple weeks back asking him for coaching. I wanted him to teach me to catch the lake trout stuck on the bottom of Lakes Cle Elum and Chelan. Then, given that he makes the best smoked salmon I ever had, help me figure out my smoker.

I dragged that smoker around for a decade, and never did figure it out. Brother Tom promised to help me a couple years back, but his leukemia beat us both. I figured I'd learn to smoke stuff partly in Tom's honor.

Anyhow, Earl agreed. So, a week ago, I packed off to Wenatchee for a couple days of spring break. Wednesday morning found us trolling at about one and a half miles an hour across lower Lake Chelan. The downriggers had our blades and spinners a few feet off the bottom.

Within the last month, Chelan had yielded Earl an eleven pounder, and homeboy Morris Uebelacker a nine pounder. In years past, Cousin Ron has taken six and seven pounders from the Flathead River and Lake, in Montana. My daughter Anna caught a six pound laker in Colorado a couple summers ago. I'd never caught one of these wonderful eating fish, and I wanted mine.

Lake trout, or "Mackinaw," are char, in the same family as brook trout and the Dolly Varden and bull trout. Macs are native to the northeast U.S. and much of Canada, and were probably first planted in Washington in the 1930s and 40s. The fish have done well in Loon, Deer, Bead, Bonaparte Cle Elum and Chelan Lakes. It also appears that the lakers in St. Helens Lake, above Spirit Lake, survived the 1980 eruption.

Lake trout require, cold, clear, well oxygenated water between 40 and 52 degrees F. Most of the year, they live at depths of 200 feet, or more, but spring and fall may find them in water of 20 feet or less.

In most waters, lake trout rely heavily on small fish and crustaceans. They grow slow and live long, sometimes reaching 40 years. In the very far North, it may take 15 years for a Mac to reach two pounds.

Mackinaw are the largest of the purely freshwater salmonids. Washington's record, caught in Lake Chelan in June, 1966, is 31 pounds, 2.75 ounces. The world record sport-caught laker weighed 66 pounds, 8 ounces, and was taken from Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories in 1991. A 102- pound Mac was taken in a gillnet in Lake Athabasca, Saskatchewan, in 1961.

Lake trout do not leap. They wage a strong, determined underwater battle. Most are taken by trolling with hootchies, spoons or minnow-like plugs attached to leaded-line rigs or downriggers. They can also be taken by bottom-fishing with whole or cut fish, or in shallow water with most trout baits.

Wednesday morning was perfect. By 10:30, we'd released a couple Macs and kept four between three and five pounds. After an hour of trolling for salmon and kokanee, the weather headed south and we headed for shore, and phase two of my training.

We filleted the larger two of the fish, reserving the others for baking at my convenience. After a light sprinkling of salt (Earl leaves fancy seasonings to others), the fillets went into the refrigerator for the night. To make sure we had enough supervision, and proper attitudes, Earl's buddy Dennis–also a renowned smoker--showed up with a few more cool malt beverages.

Between them, they somehow conveyed to me the principles of smoking. I finally understood how to maintain my smoker at 165 degrees, with plenty of applewood smoke. Thursday morning at 8:00, the fish went into the smoker. Struggles with the heating element slowed our progress, but by late afternoon, I was headed home with some perfectly smoked lake trout.

And a couple more days with one of the blessings in my life.

You never outgrow the need for a good friend and mentor.

[Copyright James L. Huckabay, 2000]

Jim Huckabay teaches in the Department of Geography at Central and is the author of "WILD WINDS and Other Tales of Growing Up in the Outdoor West." He can be contacted at wildwinds@cleelum.com
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