Monster Rainbow from one of the Seep Lakes 9/18/24
- Thread starter Starman77
- Start date
Sorry... SBH stands for a silver bead head; if I just say BH, by default that will be a black bead head, and almost always a tungsten bead. A BBH will be a brass bead head. I don't use other colors of bead heads, so that will pretty much cover it. A BH will provide the most jigging action on the retrieve; the SBH and BBH slightly less jigging action.
Good guesstimate, Billy! On average, I land around 500 fish each year (usually a mixture of trout, bass, shad and salmon). At most, I might keep 10 fish during the year. Thus, I usually release 98% of the fish I land. That's why my fisheries biologist friend was trying to get me to retain more fish, so I could give him more data on what I find in the stomachs of the fish.
ifsteve,
Unless something has changed, most of the rainbow trout stocked by WDFW are Goldendale strain hatchery trout. These fish generally mature sexually at age two, after which the mortality rate is very high. In order for trout to reach 18 or 20" the stocking rate has to be low, or the fishing mortality in the second year after stocking has to be high. The large trout Rex caught might well have been the only one in its age class still alive in that lake. The odds of it being alive next spring are near zero. Keeping a few larger and older trout in stocked lakes is no big deal as far as the fish population goes, but it's a great deal for the angler who catches them.
ifsteve
Steelhead
Look I get all these points and they are fine. But:
1. A 20" or so firm trout is going to taste better than that old fish.
2. You can get the requested stomach samples from that 20" fish.
3. If you release it it might, might provide another angler the chance to catch such a great fish. When you kill it, its dead. 100%.
At the end of the day y'all do what you want within the rules.
Isn’t this exactly what Starman did?
Tried a different, general regulation seep lake this past week, and the water temperature has cooled down a little more; 62 to 65 degrees now. Fishing was tough; only landed 4 rainbows, but 3 were nice ones (10, 19, 20 and 21 inchers; all were released).
All the fish took a BH Dark Brown Rabbit Fur Leech. I was casting and stripping using my full sinking line (Type 5/6), with moderate speed and length, with little to no wrist action and no pausing. The big fish were 6 to 8 feet below the water surface near shore. I saw lots of water boatmen swimming in the water, but could not entice any fish to take a water boatman pattern. However, I never saw a water boatman flying around and hitting the water. Only saw some fish rise after sunrise and around sunset.
I was the only fisherman at the lake on this autumn outing, which is great if you like solitude, as I do.
Saw a huge flock of Sandhill Cranes fly overhead, maybe 2,500 altogether. Very cool! Love their guttural, pre-historic sounding calls.
Rex
All the fish took a BH Dark Brown Rabbit Fur Leech. I was casting and stripping using my full sinking line (Type 5/6), with moderate speed and length, with little to no wrist action and no pausing. The big fish were 6 to 8 feet below the water surface near shore. I saw lots of water boatmen swimming in the water, but could not entice any fish to take a water boatman pattern. However, I never saw a water boatman flying around and hitting the water. Only saw some fish rise after sunrise and around sunset.
I was the only fisherman at the lake on this autumn outing, which is great if you like solitude, as I do.
Saw a huge flock of Sandhill Cranes fly overhead, maybe 2,500 altogether. Very cool! Love their guttural, pre-historic sounding calls.
Rex