Back in April we ran a story about a Skaneateles Lake angler who caught a monster 30.5-inch Atlantic salmon, AKA ‘landlocked’ salmon—or was it a brown trout?
The two species are often confused. But with a little sleuthing and some expert help, we determined the super salmonid was, in fact, a brown trout.
The story didn’t end there, however. We got a lot of email, and a few photos, from anglers sharing their opinions and examples of fascinating fish they’d caught in CNY waters.
So we thought we’d share some of these responses with you.
John ‘Kid’ Corbett helped us ID that big Skaneateles Lake brown trout. One way to tell an Atlantic salmon apart from a brown trout is the placement of spots, he said. Browns have spots on their heads. Salmon don’t—or do they?
The big lesson from that story is that no ID method alone is foolproof.
Corbett sent us this close-up of this 23.5-inch landlocked salmon that he pulled out of Skaneateles a few years ago.
“You can easily see spots on its head,” Corbett said. “Not the gill plates, they’re heavily spotted. I can count eight on one side.”
Corbett also told us a tale about one of the biggest landlocked salmon he’s ever heard coming out of Skaneateles Lake, a 36-inch trophy. Pictures of it were floating around somewhere on the internet.
The best part of the tale is that the angler, a guy named Brewster Sears, allegedly ate the fish.
“Now, if I caught that fish I’d be on the phone to find the best fish taxidermist I could find,” Corbett exclaimed.
Alas, like many big-fish stories, we couldn’t confirm it.
Then out of the blue Brewster Sears sent us a picture of a huge 40-inch, 31-pound lake trout that his friend, Adam Summers of Jamesville, caught recently on Skaneateles Lake.
They released the big bruiser, but we had other questions. Was this the very same Brewster Sears who caught the trophy salmon and ate it?
So we asked him, and Sears replied with a photo of the legendary landlocked salmon he caught two…
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