Biggest wild trout this season?

[steveo27]

Not huge by any means, but a pretty big accomplishment for me. My 2 personal bests were both caught this weekend in a small headwaters stream in the Laurel Highlands. I finally broke the 12" mark for a wild trout.

The larger of the 2 measured in right around 14" and the smaller of the 2 right at 12"

 

[pcray1231]

Troutbert, the fish in post 44 is stocked, and I'm 95% sure of that.

As for whether it's PFBC hatchery or co-op, there's no way to know. But yes, fins do re-grow. Obviously if the fins are worn to a severe degree it would take a very long time. Co-op fish typically are less severely worn, but not all PFBC fish are so terrible either. Fin regrowth is proportional to the growth rate of the fish. So a small, still growing fish will recover faster than a large fish. And this isn't something that happens after a few weeks in the stream, it takes a long time. But a holdover of 1+ years? Yeah, if not "healed" it'll be well on it's way there.

As was said, the overall color comes pretty quickly. The red spots have more trouble. If no red spots exist, and the diet supports lots of red, red starts taking over black spots. But that's true on wild fish too.

 

[Night_Stalker]

two nice males

 

[AndyP]

NightStalker where have you been ? Miss your posts. Your trout pics always have trout with big teeth !

 

[PocketWater]

I caught this wild brown on Penns Memorial Day weekend. I did not measure it but estimate it in the 17 or 18" range. Largest wild trout I have caught to date.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Gorgeous looking fish, Pocket!

 

[PocketWater]

Nymph-wristed wrote:
Gorgeous looking fish, Pocket!

Thanks! He didn't break the 20" mark, which is a goal of mine, but he was a heck of a lot of fun to catch. Really thick fish. I hooked him in a run and he took off downstream a good 100' in a matter of seconds.

 

[SBecker]

 

[PocketWater]

SBecker, Wow...that is an impressive fish. Great colors on that one.

 

[Swattie87]

Becker, stop feeding Gemmies to the Brownies.

 

[ryansheehan]

ding ding ding, we have a winner

 

[wildtrout2]

This 12" native is my best wild trout so far this season! I caught it this morning on a Class A stream which was a Wild Brook Trout Enhancement Project stream. It's my third biggest native to date. Of 22 brookies, I had 3@ 9", 2@10", and the big 12". Probably one of my very best days chasing natives.

Sorry for the poor quality pic, it was early with poor light.

 

[geebee]

oh thats a beaut Becker. pretty skinny water too by the look of it. 23" perhaps ?

 

[PocketWater]

Nice native Wildtrout2.

 

[wildtrout2]

Thanks, it kind of made my year already. :-D I haven't gotten one that size in about 7 years.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

wildtrout2: Awesome fish!

 

[SBecker]

geebee wrote:
oh thats a beaut Becker. pretty skinny water too by the look of it. 23" perhaps ?

Around there. I rarely tape anymore.

 

[pcray1231]

Same fish as the first pic in post #19. Finally pulled the pics off of my camera.

 

[Reeder]

one is the biggest so far this year the other is my favorite so far.

 

[PocketWater]

Reeder wrote:
one is the biggest so far this year the other is my favorite so far.

Those are some incredible brown trout.