lake trout. runner or not? that is the ?

[dugmore]

i caught  a 26 inch  2 and 1/3 pound lake trout  the other day here in new hampshire. does the lenght and how skinny he was mean he was a runner?  meaning running from sumthin bigger his whole life.  i would like sum opinions

[JiggerMan]

did it have a big head and small body....?  If so the length and the low weight could mean that either the fish had trouble finding food or there may be a forage problem in the lake.  Not that there is no forage for the trout to eat, there just may be an imbalance in the numbers of trout to Forage.  Or the fish could be just real old and was not going to live that much longer. 

I Know that in some of our streams here in PA that do have wild trout in them alot of the bigger older fish are the big heads and small bodies fish.  one stream in particular has a very large population of trout in it and the older trout have to spend more energy then they are getting from they food that they are able to catch, thus causeing the fish to suffer from malnutrition of sorts.  they have to spend more energy because the have to compete with the younger quicker trout for the food. 

Just my 2 cents,

JiggerMan 

[TogueTamer]

Dugmore JiggerMan's theory is true but another common issue with some of these extremely skinny lake trout here in New Hampshire is connected to them swallowing a slug-o  or any other plastic that is not easily digested.  This makes it extremely hard for the fish take in the correct amount of food over time which in turn causes them to thin out and eventually die.  I have caught a few fish here in New Hampshire with this problem.  If anything you are doing the fish a favor by harvesting it.
Tight Lines, TogueTamer