Just an FYI.

Was talking to one of our faculty today who does a lot of cutthroat research out in Lake WA. He pretty much informed me that you really don't want to be eating any of the cutts in that lake once they get over a foot in length. Apparently, they are LOADED with PCB's. LOADED. Like lethally kinda LOADED.

Even so, I think the state has already issued a warning about eating the cutts in that Lake - maybe something like only eating one serving of fish a month that come out of the lake.

Personally, you couldn't pay me enough money in the world to eat those fish. For those that do, you might want to consider eating something else....

PS. Oh yeah, apparently the cutt population in the lake is HUGE, with a ton of big fish.

They did some sampling this last week and fish like this were not uncommon.

Parker -
I'm with you - can't understand why folks continue to eat the cutts from Lake Washington. DOH did release a health advisory in August of 2004 where they advise to consume no more than 1 meal/month of cutts greater than 12 inches.

That info as well as a summary of other advisories can be found on page 30 of the fishing regulation pamphlet.

Even harder to understand is the number of folks that are comfortalble eating ling cod from Elliot Bay.

Not sure that I agree that cutts the size of the one pictured (over 14#s) is common in Lake Washington. 4 to 7 #s yes but over 10 pounds I don't think so. The one pictured above is the only such sized cutt that I have heard of in recent years. Are you hearing of folks catching such fish routinely?

Tight lines
Curt

No that picture I believe is a man named Sok I believe and he caught that #15 lber in either 02 or 03, it's the biggest anyone has caught out of the big pond for a while....

is that a state record size? i am kinda wondering because there is 4 different types of cutthroat in the record book . if that cutt is 15lbs then the only type that beats it is the Lahontan cutthroat. i would just like to get this clear.

here is a link to a site with the records

http://wdfw.wa.gov/cgi-bin/database/fish/fishing_record.cgi#fresh

thanks

Yes I believe it was, I think it was just a hair under 15lbs, caught a few years ago....and it is the record from what i can remember...

Wow i just looked at that record book ck14, i guess they didn't submit it, because its not a lahontan...I also saw the record for the coastal sea run cutthroat was about 5 ounces higher then the one i caught 2 years ago...shoot i guess i missed it by a mere 5 ounces...too bad but it was released so maybe its put on more weight for me to catch it again...

I heard that the PCB were confined to the internal organs, and not in the meat of the fish. Any Biologists care to help out?

Well I am guessing that since the WDFW says don't eat the fish because of the PCB's I am sure they are talking about the meat because people don't eat the organs of the fish...Whatever its still playing with fire even if the PCB were just in the organs, it wouldn't sit with me well if I was eating the meat of a PCB infected fish...That's just me though.....

I think Sok's cutt is the exception, not the norm.

Yea, that is a monster....

Let's just put it this way - some BIG fish came out of a recent UW seine out in the Lake.

Maybe "common" wasn't a good word to use, but there are fish in the system just as big, if not bigger.

Sok was fishing with Cigar when they caught that fish. Sok ate that cutty and never did have it "officially" weighed - hence no record. Unofficially, it weighed in the 15 pound range and that would have been a state record cutt.

Every time I see him, I always ask him what State Record Cutt taste likes!

Lake Washington is probably one of the most under-fished and difficult lakes to fish in the state. Certain times of the year the cutt and 'bow fishing can be good. I have had days where I limit out and days where I get zilch. If I remember correctly Sok's fish was caught in June. Spring and early summer are good times to fish the lake.

Yea I heard that it was that that fishery is tough too Easy Limits...It's a real hard one to pinpoint down and get fish but if you get into it you can limit out no problem other days it seems like the fish are gone...

I grew up on the north end of Lk WA and ate many fish through the 60's-70's. Friend caught a bass that missed the state record by 3 ozs. There are some HUGE fish in there. Gives me the heebie jeebies knowing I was eating so much junk. There was a segment on the news the other day highlighting how many different toxic chemicals we've ingested over the years. I'm still alive, although I've been wondering why I glow at night......

now I'm wondering what they mean by "loaded with pcbs"...

concentrations are typically listed in ppm (or parts per million)........

up to 2 ppm is perfectly acceptable in milk (at least according to FDA when I checked about a decade ago) though I've seen fish consumption warnings for waters with fish containing less than that.......

another interesting note on this subject...

there was a recent press release regarding contaminant testing done on humans who practiced supposedly "safe" consumption practices (e.g. they were vegetarian, only ate organic foods, etc., etc.) and they found abnormally high levels of all kinds of dangerous stuff in their bodies (can't recall if DDT was one of them though)..........

I'm not saying that everyone should run out and catch a bunch of L. Wash. cutts and throw them on the BBQ. Just to understand that there's a lot of politics in these kinds of warnings and that the objectives of said warnings arn't always related to "public safety".....

Yea Kent Near Monroe I have heard from a lot of experienced bass fishermen that they think their is a state and maybe world record Smallmouth lurking around Lake Washington...