News of the weird, it would appear, is quick to become news of the world.
Since publishing the story and photo of the unusual two-mouthed trout caught by Fort Collins fisherman Mark Wilson in Lon Hagler Reservoir last March, we’ve received a handful of similarly odd reports. But none quite so compelling as that of Don Beusman from the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York.
After a friend forwarded a copy of Wilson’s story of the two-mouthed rainbow trout, Beusman sent word of a rare breed of two-mouthed lake trout that’s been living in Canandaigua Lake for more than 40 years.
“The first one that I ever saw was caught by my longtime hunting and fishing buddy, Charlie Shakeshaft from Churchville, N.Y., on the west side of Canandaigua Lake in 1970,” Beusman wrote in an e-mail that included photographic evidence. “When Charlie yelled to me that he had just caught a two-mouth lake trout, I said, ‘Yeah, and I can walk across Canandaigua Lake to Vine Valley,’ where we were camping. By gosh, his 3-pound laker had an upper mouth and a lower mouth. Unreal!”
About six years ago, Beusman was fishing the same area and caught another one.
“This trout had two separate mouths with two separate throat units that fed the same stomach,” he said. “While fishing the same Canandaigua Lake area 30 days later, wow! I caught another two-mouth laker. This one was 5 pounds and was a beautiful fish. My wife, Sue, convinced me to have the 5-pound one mounted, and so we did.”
Over the course of nearly 55 years fishing the lake, Beusman has kept a diary for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and his unusual catches have generated quite a stir. Most want to know where the nearest nuclear power plant is.
There isn’t one nearby, leaving Beusman and his wife to do some research on the stocking and natural breeding of lake trout in the New York State region.
Unlike Wilson’s hatchery rainbow, which was dismissed by a local wildlife biologist as an injured fingerling that most likely had adapted to the damaged jaw with the formation of a second mouth, teeth and all, behind the first, Beusman discovered through DEC records and interviews that the genetic fluke of his two- mouthed lake trout started many years ago and is still developing.
The fish apparently were brought in from Canada (Georgian Bay) as small stocking fish, making their way to Cayuga Lake, N.Y., and finally into the Bath, N.Y., hatchery, where they were then distributed to all the Finger Lakes, he said.
“As far as I have heard, all of the Finger Lakes in New York state have this strain of two-mouth lake trout,” Beusman said.
Littleton man lands lunker.
Coloradans are making a name for themselves all the way to northwest Arkansas, where fishing guide Ed Chapko reports a first from Littleton client Bobby Dotson on Beaver Lake. When Dotson and fishing buddy Bill Bowen of Rogers, Ark., showed up for a guided striper fishing trip wanting to use flies they had tied themselves, Chapko didn’t know what to make of it.
“I have been fishing this lake for almost 30 years and never heard of fishing like this for stripers,” Chapko said. “Well, they work! We got the flies down to a certain depth with the aid of downriggers and they used 9-weight rods with 20-pound leaders.”
Dotson landed a 36-pound striped bass and a 37-pound striped bass within 25 minutes of each other.
Seminar offered.
With dove and grouse seasons on the brink of their Sept. 1 opening, C.J. Kausel of Hunt Smart Productions () is offering a series of $10 seminars on tactics to take to the field.
Monday’s 7 p.m. seminar at the Denver Bass Pro Shops (7970 East 49th Ave. at I-70 and Quebec) covers dove hunting in Colorado, including dove characteristics, habits and habitat, gaining access to prime hunting areas, required gear, guns and load, safety in the field, care of the harvest and cooking recipes.
Similar topics will be covered as they pertain to blue grouse and sharptail grouse in a 7 p.m. seminar on Thursday and a 10 a.m. seminar on Saturday. Preregistration is required for all seminars, and women and youth are encouraged to attend. Log on to or call 303-699-7199 for registration and information.
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
