30" Browns

[Midge22]

i know of a few over 25" that have been caught. my biggest wild brown is roughly 22", but have a few right at the 20" mark. Ive seen wild browns on a couple streams that im sure were over 25". But with that being said, ive never hooked anything that big in PA. but i know that they are there.

 

[mcneishm]

My biggest non-lake run wild brown was 25" out of a LV stream. I've caught quite a few in the 20"+ range but the only fish close to 30" was a 28" brown out of the Salmon River last fall. I do not believe those fish are actually wild. (Are they?)

 

[Night_Stalker]

Here is the link from the State for the biggest fish they get to verify...it can be modified by year http://fishandboat.com/bigfish.htm

Additionally, I have attached a pic of the previously mentioned 32.5" that I removed the name and face from (fly). I also have my 28.5" (spin).

 

[PatrickC]

Not real..... ;-)

I kid. I simply don't understand why those that have not caught certain things are so cynical that they don't exist.

 

[krayfish]

NS,
That top photo looks like the one my buddy sent me. He met a guy that was walleye fishing in the Susky and took a brown over 27" on a minnow.

Sas,
I've extended the offer to take you north but you always veer left and end up on Pine. If you join us, you'll get to cast dries to risers in the 18-25". It doesn't happen every day but it happens a lot more than you think.

I think I estimate on the shy side of things. During the Catskill Jam in October, you can ask Stimey and martin0206.....I'm brutal on estimates. The opening of the net is 21" and if the fish wasn't as wide as the net.... I'd yell "that one's 15", get him back in the water quick." )

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Hey hey hey! I veer left, but don't fish the Pine much at all! The problem is getting up north when you're up north. I think that actually happened once this year, but it was on my family vacation and my wife wasn't about to have me leave her at the cabin w/ two little ones all day while I head out to the river. It'll happen.

 

[McSneek]

SBecker wrote:
Mcsneak,
If you have not hit the 20inch mark on wild trout, you are not trying to. If you want one, you let me know.

Thanks for the offer SBecker. I don't fish anywhere near as often as you do so that's one strike against me. I figure my best shot at one is Penns Creek and I got there all of 3 times this year. Caught plenty of fish each time including plenty of nice ones. I don't target big fish by swinging big streamers and quite frankly the biggest fish I've caught in that stream have come on smaller (#16) nymphs. I may have had fish on that were at or above the 20" mark but haven't landed one. I'll get one one of these days. If desperation sets in I know who to call.

To PatrickC - I believe they exist in a select few streams. Just not in any great quantity.

 

[McSneek]

krayfish wrote:
NS,
That top photo looks like the one my buddy sent me. He met a guy that was walleye fishing in the Susky and took a brown over 27" on a minnow.

Hard to make out but I think the writing on that photo says Big Springs. Maybe it swam downstream from the ditch or it's an old breeder they tossed in?

 

[SBecker]

I do not fish streamers unless conditions present themselves to do so. Those conditions never line up with my schedule. Last 22 incher came on a size 18 cdc collard pt.

I measure my fish on my rod, make a mark with mud or visually, then measure when I get back to the car.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

I float below kinzua with td55 this spring and he had a honest 30 inch class brown follow his fly into the 1st turn of a figure 8. We weren't chucking small #censor# either. If there's any place to catch a "trophy" trout I'm taking beast class fish it below kinzua.

 

[pcray1231]

Everything below excludes the great lakes and their tribs, and speaks to wild/fingerling stocked fish only. If monsters come from a hatchery, they can exist anywhere, so it's kind of beside the point to talk about. We're looking at places that grow em.

Have to agree, the Allegheny below Kinzua would rank right up there as far as places to catch them in PA.

I catch a one or two in the 17-20 inch class every year. Such fish do exist in surprisingly small streams, and can be caught in bigger, richer streams too. The difference is that they're seemingly a true anomaly in the samll streams, i.e. there aren't many in the 15-20" range. You have the small and medium guys, and then the monster. In the larger streams, like Penns, well, you can sneak up on that number. You get tons in the 12-15" class, and a fair number in the 16-20" class too. You occasionally see one that probably pushes 21, 22, maybe 23 inches. Rare to find anything higher than that.

My largest wild trout I've brought to hand in my life was 22". It was actually in the Tully of all places. Off the mouth of Cacoosing, and yeah, it was indeed wild. I've also broken the 20" mark (wild) on Spring Creek and BFC. But I'm probably approaching double digits as far as fish in the 17-20" range from a variety of locals.

I can't say that I've ever even seen an honest 30 incher. That doesn't mean I don't think they exist. If I was searching, and I'm not, the D and the Allegheny, maybe the Lehigh, would be high on my list.

But don't overlook the borderline marginal waters. Pine, middle Clarion, etc. Such streams have plenty of food, but few trout on account of temperatures. Only the dominant fish get the cool water refuges and make it. The rest of the year they have the run of things.

SC limestoners need to be mentioned as well. They have a history of turning up beasts.

 

[greenghost]

Someone with some time to research could probably go through PFBC stream shockings to see how truly rare VERY large fish are in streams (not including lake run fish) limestone or not. I think 30" is pretty pretty much an urban (or rural) myth.

 

[krayfish]

Fantastic Paco. When should I mark the calendar to meet ya up there?

Ghost,
In you neck of the woods there have been sightings of the youghness monster. Be careful where you walk because it's a 29.99" blood thirsty brown. One more meal and he might break 30".

If I were looking to break 30", there's at least 3 streams in SCPA that hold or have the ability to produce a beast. See posts from squaretail's monster truck post or some of the giants that grrenieweenie had posted. Better chance of seeing 30" than seein a big foot....except in Lancaster.

 

[salmonoid]

PatrickC wrote:
Not real..... ;-)

I kid. I simply don't understand why those that have not caught certain things are so cynical that they don't exist.

It's hard to draw concrete conclusions from anecdotal evidence, which is what all of the purported and reported catches are; they do not represent a systemic review of all large brown trout catches, so they are anecdotal at best. From the PFBC biggest fish list for the past seven years, there are two fish creeled and reported at 30.5". This does not include fish that are Catch and Release (length only) and obviously, not everyone reports their catches to the PFBC. From this thread, the OP states he has caught a 30" brown, and the 32.5" pic from Big Spring is shown as more evidence. But all of that anecdotal data really serves to support the claim that such fish really are rare; all the other posters list fish that are less than 30". I did not see anyone denying that such fish can and do exist but they are scarce; that's not a cynical statement at all - it's a realistic one. Maybe 30 inchers are immune to electroshocking or something but I never remember reading a electroshocking survey result that included a fish over 30". Fish that are long-line released always grow in size, sometime quite rapidly, over a few hours

I searched for some data about growth rates; it seems a rule of thumb is four inches for the first three years, then two inches each year thereafter. That makes a 30" fish pretty darn old, even if you add an inch to each year, for a fish that is genetically prone to growing and is living in the ideal environment. Fish that started in a hatchery might have a jump on length, as would a hatchery brood-stock escapee.

 

[Railking]

I'm not sure I would know what to do if I even hooked into a 30 inch fish. I caught a 22-23 inch wild brown in a well known, heavily pressured central PA stream two weeks ago and nearly had a heart attack over him. My legs were shaking so bad after catching a glimpse of him that I could hardly walk. I then encountered the problem of netting something so large with a regular size net. The fight lasted a solid 10 minutes after taking a couple long runs and I fell in twice chasing him up and down the pool. If I were to encounter a true 30 incher, I may just kill over right there stream side.

 

[midnightangler]

Maybe 30 inchers are immune to electroshocking or something but I never remember reading a electroshocking survey result that included a fish over 30".

They miss most of the big fish in electro-shocking surveys (and they know it). Those big browns live in deep pools and they don't use the kind of juice to cover that volume of water. I think there are more 30" browns out there than people realize.

I've seen one trout in PA that was close to 30. It turned on a streamer and it was close enough that I could see it's spots. It was so deep I couldn't believe it. Not in a stream many would guess either.

The biggest wild brown I've landed is shown. This fish was taped at 25". 30" is a true monster.

 

[MattBoyer]

vcregular wrote:
Now this thread is funny. So where do these 30" fish show up on the PFBC electro-shocking surveys they do all across the state?

Besides, I'll start believing there are 30" fish, when I start to see pics of actual 25" trout. Taped.

Too funny

If I felt I had something to prove, which I don't, I'd dig up the video of me catching mine on a night crawler at 16:07, the day before labor day 2004, across from the old Pine Creek Valley Campground and holding my rod up to it while it was laying in the shallows. When I went home I stopped the video at that spot and taped the rod. I actually said on the video that I thought it was about 26-27. It was 29 1/2 from fork to nose, so probably an honest 30, but I can't say I nailed it to the tenth of an inch, so I usually just say 29 1/2. Believe what you want, but there's no reason to talk smack about someone just because they claim to have done something you never did. It tends to highlight your ignorance when you do such a thing and really is the only thing in this thread that I personally find too funny.

Boyer

 

[PatrickC]

Thank you Matt Boyer!

 

[streamerguy]

They miss most of the big fish in electro-shocking surveys (and they know it). Those big browns live in deep pools and they don't use the kind of juice to cover that volume of water.

Interesting. I've always wondered about stuff like this when they electro-shock streams, especially streams with tons of cover. There's a couple streams that I fish that come to mind where the bigger browns(well, 12-20in, nothing near 30) often hide under rock ledges, undercut banks, etc. and if they shock the water the fish probably still go belly up, but go unnoticed because they're stuck under a rock.

This is probably less of a problem on slow gradient spring creeks, but in those rocky freestone streams the fish have lots of places to hide.

 

[Brown71]

Lots of great posts here. Thank you guys all for responding and for the info. Glad to see it was positive for the most part.

Many of you guys hit on a lot of the points I wanted to mention. First of all, the post about electorshocking missing a lot of the big ones is true, and that was straight from PA Fish Commish mouth. Sometimes, if they turn it up high enough to get the big fish, small fish can be killed, so they don't often do it. Watched it done twice on one of my favorite local streams.

Second, someone had said that there is many fish in the 20-25 inch range, and that is so very true on the good waters. We get quite a few of those each year, and we MEASURE those fish when they appear to be over 20, not a guesstimate. I record every one. As stated before, I am a big trout addict and devote my free time to the pursuit of them.

Now, as far as the 30's or even the 28 to 30's, they certainly exist, and in many waters, some famous some not so. But, by no means do I think there is a lot of them, which is sort of why I started the post in the first place. Thought it would be cool to hear about others experiences with these beasts.

But, they are there, and most of you are probably fishing somewhere that has one or more. Most of the major limestoners have all given up honest 30" fish.

Two things I have found to increase your odds for these bigger fish are 1.Fish NOW. Fall is when they are out of their normal summer haunts, obviously attracted to the spawn.(NOT saying catch them off redds!!!) 2.Fish streams with areas of posted water. It seems it gives fish a chance to grow up and not be taken out the minute they are nice.

For the record, I release 99.999999% of all trout I catch. But the 30 1/2" brown is on my wall, I got accurate measurement and weight.

Oh and MattBoyer, you couldn't have said it better. Congrats on your fish.