Mind your manners and death to palomonos!.

[jifigz]

silverfox wrote:
I would personally be happier if all they stocked were triploid rainbows and yellow trout. That way they at least don't pose any harm to any wild trout population. The yellow trout either die, get harvested, or migrate to the ocean (I saw a guy caught one in the Chesapeake Bay last year) and the triploids would prevent any inadvertent wild populations where they don't belong.

I totally agree. I think 100% of the fish stocked by the PFBC needs to be triploid rainbows.

 

[JohnPowers]

Caught a big one a lifetime ago opening day at bells mill road on the wissi. People thought it was a carp. What a zoo. Guy across the creek with a boat rod and Penn Squidder reel trying to cast a worm above a pyramid dipsie. Nylon line went crack and the pyramid slammed into a tree behind my head. Never thought of them locating fish. Interesting.

 

[RLeep2]

Every year, I try to take a couple days in early November to count redds on some streams in my part of the state. Sometimes, I carry a rod and sometimes not. If I do, it is usually an UL spin outfit and I make a few casts here and there away from the spawners.

So, a couple years back, I'm doing this and came across a golden RT that I knew had been in the same pool since being stocked there 8 months beforehand in March. I thought, what the heck and flipped a #1 Mepps Aglia with a moon-glo blade out in front of his nose. He never hesitated and ate the spinner. So, I winched him out, about 18 or 19".

I took him home and tried to eat him. He was awful; easily the worst fish I'd eaten since a buddy and I ate a half dozen creek chubs on a bet back in 1962 or 63.

Never again..

 

[rrt]

I had a great one-on-one contest with a palomino a few years back. I rolled him, twice, one morning on a nymph. I fished assiduously for him for several months, never again having him bite. When he finally vanished, I was almost glad that he could not defeat me yet again; but I missed trying to catch him. He took me through my whole bag of fly-fishing tricks and let me realize that I do not always win my contests with individual trout. Kind of humbling, actually.

 

[henrydavid]

Early June, 6 years ago on the Lehigh River not far from White Haven but far enough from any hot spots, trout were rising and I saw a flash of gold/yellow upstream, drifted over it and it took my fly, after several runs and nearly getting it to the net several times it finally gave in. It would be my biggest fish from the Lehigh River and with that current the fish can get muscular. I had a new respect for the Golden Rainbow. I took one hero shot that I'm still not proud of but after some resuscitation it went back out into the current and moved upstream, I hope it's still out there.

 

[laszlo]

Beautiful fish

 

[foxfire]

JohnPowers wrote:
Caught a big one a lifetime ago opening day at bells mill road on the wissi. People thought it was a carp. What a zoo. Guy across the creek with a boat rod and Penn Squidder reel trying to cast a worm above a pyramid dipsie. Nylon line went crack and the pyramid slammed into a tree behind my head. Never thought of them locating fish. Interesting.

That's really funny!!! Aw, the good old days!

 

[Bamboozle]

The one and only time I went out of my way to target palominos was a LONG time ago as a senior in high school when I was still a spin fisherman.

It was Opening Day and I was fishing Skippack Creek for the first time and came upon a bunch of anglers throwing everything but the kitchen sink trying to temp three golden RT swimming around in a hole.

After they quit, I gave it some thought and on a whim (because I had them with me as I spent a lot of time at Springton Reservoir), I tied on a yellow marabou crappie jig.

I twitched the jig through that hole and caught all three palominos and a rainbow trout before hordes of other fishermen crowded me trying to see my secret weapon…

…which I wouldn’t show them! ;-)

I also released them all which really pissed them off!!

After that, crappie jigs in all colors were in my spin-fishing arsenal before I succumbed to the fly-fishing bug the following year and described similar flies as “woolly buggers…”

 

[pcray1231]

I actually find them more easy to catch. Rainbows are suckers for egg flies. Pallies are too. And pallies are hyper agressive compared to regular bows. If you are on it first, you know right where it is, and you are gonna get a take. Every time.

Of course they get skittish after being picked on like any other trout, and they tend to get picked on. After being missed, lined, etc they are done for a while..

Still, I think of it this way. If I'm fishing a stocked stream. I am FAR more liky to catch the pallie than any other specific fish in that stream, no question about it. You know right where it is at all times and its more agressive than anything else around. I don't take any particular pride in it though. Catching a big stockie is like shooting a big buck in a high fence. Hunting/fishing is fun in any circumstance. But you don't take particular pride in man made trophies. It's as big as somebody decided to grow it.

 

[Bamboozle]

JohnPowers wrote:
Caught a big one a lifetime ago opening day at bells mill road on the wissi. People thought it was a carp. What a zoo. Guy across the creek with a boat rod and Penn Squidder reel trying to cast a worm above a pyramid dipsie. Nylon line went crack and the pyramid slammed into a tree behind my head. Never thought of them locating fish. Interesting.

A zillion years ago I didn't see any palominos, but I saw a few pretty big goldfish swimming around in the Wissahickon along Lincoln Drive.

I love the boat rod story, I remember seeing more than few guys along Ridley Creek back in the day with surf rods that almost reached the other side of the creek and stout boat rods with huge casting reels.

Opening Day was only for the brave or insane back then... ;-)