As we have all read or heard, the “CREATURE” was a bit dried out and difficult to identify. However, the consensus opinion among UDWR folks is now that the toothy alien was in fact a remnant of the brood stock lake trout planted the previous fall. Although there was little in the way of tail fin or other fins, there was a clearly recognizable “adipose” fin, just ahead of the tail. That made it a trout. After that there were several other features DWR folks could recognize to further clarify the identity…in spite of the fish having been run over by a car.
They have also decided that the dieoff was “winterkill”. The shallow water, with little vegetation, simply ran out of oxygen for the fish long before the ice came off enough to replenish it. That is not uncommon in shallow waters during prolonged ice covers…without oxygenating inflow from other sources.
DWR looks at the dieoff as a blessing, from the standpoint that it removes all unwanted species and leaves the lake open for selective stocking of preferred species.