West Medical

[raffensg64]

Is anybody else seeing smaller than usual fish from West Medical? My partners and I fished it today and got a bunch, 40 or so to net with chironimids, leech patterns, and various nymphs. However, 30 of these fish were in the 10-13" range. The remainder were mostly 16-18" except for two at 21" and 23". In the past few years, my experience has been that half or more of these fish would have met or exceeded 16". I'm assuming it's just the pressure that this "put and take" lake gets, and with every year that pressure just gets heavier. To put it bluntly, these fish get brutalized! Thank God rainbows are hardy fish....I've seen them still feeding voraciously with whole jaws, gill plates, eyes, etc missing, while dragging around a swallowed hook, several feet of line and an ounce of sinkers!!! Anyways, I got side-tracked. Sorry. Does the average size seem to be declining or is it just me?

[Marc Martyn]

Two years ago I fished it several times in the spring and caught some nice sized fish- 18-22". That held until about the 4th of July when it got hot and stayed that way. Last year I went out in the first part of May and the algae bloom was horrible. The entire lake stunk. I never went back the rest of the year.
Personally, I think the ecosysem of the lake is in trouble. My thought is that the lake is getting a lot of fertilizer getting washed down into it from the surrounding fields. For many years the sewage treatment plant (now closed) was dumping into it. All that sludge settled to the bottom. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the phosphate level is very high in that lake. I have been searching for a recent water test on the lake but can't find one.
Is there a biologist amongst us that can give his/her input?:-k

[glastron876]

I fish West Medical quite often - it is the one lake that I KNOW I can take the youngest boy & wife to where they will always see alot of activity in one fashion or another - anhow - as for sizes seen so far...I have seen a few of the larger ones, 18" & Up being caught. Went opening day and caught a 19-1/2" off bottom within minutes of being there myself.

Since then I - like yourself - have been catching & seeing much more of the 12-14" this year.
Then again - it is still early in the year - last year I could guarantee at least 4 out of the 5 being caught being over 16" - but that was from late July and on.

By then the pressure on the lake was light also - my belief is that alot of the people fishing now will die off shortly with changes in the weather coming and holidays/vacations, etc., thus giving the fish a chance to grow a bit more. Don't know for sure - just something that I remember from up at W. Medical last year and hope for this year.

I love the good fight from the larger fish - right now the smaller ones fight like lunkers, but I can hardly wait for later in the year when I hope they will also be larger.

Of course the bad part of this is for those that like to eat the fish they catch, the fish tends to begin to taste "muddy" later in the season, and I always see a bit more discarded carcasses floating around becuase the brutalization - the Osprey feed quite well though.

[jmay]

I try to stay away from W Medical as much as possible, the biggest detractor for me is the caliber of peope, amount of trash around the shore, and the fact that it was a sewage treatment plant for the loney bin turns me off. I beleive in the 80's the lake was "dead" due to nitrogen levels from the sewage. I C&R 95% of my fish but with the history of that lake I won't eat a planter trout out of that lake, I am sure they do taste like "mud":-"

[gpc]

Ive never fished Medical but Ive noticed that almost all the hatchery fish are smaller from this year to last. Im not sure if that lake gets huge plants but it might be the hatcherys fault. It seems like the "catchable" trout keeps getting smaller

[raffensg64]

OK, since my initial post on April 30th, things have improved dramatically! Our last few outing, especially during the second week of May, were outstanding, yielding literally dozens of rainbows 18-23" and several brownies at 20-24". We haven't changed our style of fishing the deep water (25-plus). But, for whatever reason, the smaller fish seem to be concentrated in shallower water where more food is available and the larger fish are content to forage out deep. On the 14th or 15th of May (I can't remember exactly) we had one 1-hour period where 12 consecutive fish were 18" or better. Of the 30-plus fish we landed that day at least 20 met or exceeded 18". All were caught in deep water within a few feet of the bottom. And, as soon as we head to shallow water, we get right in the middle of thousands of "dinks". West Medical takes a licking but keeps on ticking!

P.S. Due to all the recent warm weather, she's starting to get her stink on. A couple more weeks and she'll be done til late September

[raffensg64]

OK, since my initial post on April 30th, things have improved dramatically! Our last few outing, especially during the second week of May, were outstanding, yielding literally dozens of rainbows 18-23" and several brownies at 20-24". We haven't changed our style of fishing the deep water (25-plus). But, for whatever reason, the smaller fish seem to be concentrated in shallower water where more food is available and the larger fish are content to forage out deep. On the 14th or 15th of May (I can't remember exactly) we had one 1-hour period where 12 consecutive fish were 18" or better. Of the 30-plus fish we landed that day at least 20 met or exceeded 18". All were caught in deep water within a few feet of the bottom. And, as soon as we head to shallow water, we get right in the middle of thousands of "dinks". West Medical takes a licking but keeps on ticking!

P.S. Due to all the recent warm weather, she's starting to get her stink on. A couple more weeks and she'll be done til late September

[raffensg64]

OK, since my initial post on April 30th, things have improved dramatically! Our last few outing, especially during the second week of May, were outstanding, yielding literally dozens of rainbows 18-23" and several brownies at 20-24". We haven't changed our style of fishing the deep water (25-plus). But, for whatever reason, the smaller fish seem to be concentrated in shallower water where more food is available and the larger fish are content to forage out deep. On the 14th or 15th of May (I can't remember exactly) we had one 1-hour period where 12 consecutive fish were 18" or better. Of the 30-plus fish we landed that day at least 20 met or exceeded 18". All were caught in deep water within a few feet of the bottom. And, as soon as we head to shallow water, we get right in the middle of thousands of "dinks". West Medical takes a licking but keeps on ticking!

P.S. Due to all the recent warm weather, she's starting to get her stink on. A couple more weeks and she'll be done til late September

[bustin]

Many people I work with at the nearby prison about 1 minute away on the road say do not eat fish from the lake. Howver for catch and release has anyone had any luck from the private dock as I want to try and fish a bit at lunch time.