south platte slab

[DeeAre]

Probably the fish of my life. 25 inches, we guessed him 15-20lbs. took a silver lightning bug, 25 minute fight.... on 6x.

[TheRealPoop]

Yea, looks like a lover. congrats! 6x, I bet that was a blast.

[Underoos]

Do you know what a redd is?

[neckdeep]

we guessed him 15-20lbs.

Guess again. Looks like 25" and maybe 7-10lbs (I'd guess 8lb, at the most)....which is still a helluva heavy weight ratio for a 25 incher and a very, very big fish for 6x. Congrats. Just sayin, I've caught my share of fully gravid salmon and steelhead and a 20lb salmonid is usually well past 30". My biggest wild steelhead, a gravid 29" hen, I doubt it was over 12lbs. Your fish is big but honestly it doesn't look as heavy as a frozen turkey.

For rainbows that are not gravid, the average ratio all the fish calculators use is 30" = 10lbs/ 24" = 5lbs (but it aint precise, a fish like that can have a couple pounds of other fish in its gut plus the temporary weight of fully developed gonads). And, obviously, fish in exceptionally food rich waters with little or no current can weigh more than average. But for a 25" trout to break 10lbs, it would have a truly abnormal girth (20"-25") and I don't see that in your fish.

http://www.jrwfishing.com/fish_sizes.asp


For example. check out this hog (and the fish). That is the 2009 ID record and that is what a certified 20lb rainbow looks like. Allowing for the size distorting effects of the photos, that fish is still more than twice the size of the fish you are holding. The 35 pounder from last year damn near covers the tailgate of a truck and has at least four or five times the mass of your fish. If your fish was in the range that you guessed, it would have about half the mass of that 35 lb monster. Not. Even. Close.

http://voices.idahostatesman.com/200..._rainbow_trout


http://snakeriveroutdoorsports.com/1...rainbow-trout/

[DeeAre]

Neckdeep, dropping knowledge like always
I'm just saying... I lift a lot of weights (I moonlight as a a gymrat in addition to an angler) and have a decent gauge. I'm claiming 15#

And anyways, is this the Drake board? Tough crowd.

[neckdeep]

On 6x, I'm sure it felt like a ton. Were your hands shaking when you finally landed it? That's all that really counts. Good fish, pic to prove it and made into a genuine angling accomplishment with the small fly and 6x. Don't detract from a good story with an eye rolling number. All I got yesterday was a dozen 12-16 inchers on #6/3x. Not too much battle there, they were to hand before they knew what hit'em.

[DeeAre]

Hands shaking... check. Ran way into backing on 3 separate runs, and each one I had so much line on the water I thought he was gone. Then the wrap on the boulders, thought my leader was toast.
Dumb hungry fish... I gotta get north. Bad drought in CO = super skinny tailwater for the next 12 months.

[gretch6364]

that is a great fish, and catching hogs on the south platte is not the same as catching hogs in the northern rockies...great job!

[2FUNKY]

Nice fish, real nice. Was gonna bust your chops over the outragous weight guess but NeckDeep pretty much covered it. Let me know when you get a 40"er, that one will be 20#.

Still a sick fish though man, awesome job. I spent yesterday catching 18" Cutts on Salmon Flies!!!

[NMmatt]

Nice fish! I'm surprised no one called you out for potentially transferring herpes. Or even worse, maybe you got fishmouth disease!!

[Lexi-Bell]

THAT is a big-ass load of rainbow jizz my man.

Seems to me like this place is pretty damn far from the Drake board, but honestly you should be grateful you're only getting a hard time about your gross overestimation of the fish's size and not getting your ass chewed about fishing to spawners.

just sayin.

[DeeAre]

Def was not fishing to spawners Lex, although I did catch one. If we're gonna split hairs on that ethic let's go ahead and open up the whole can on the ethics of catch and release fly fishing altogether. Plenty redds around this spot and we stuck to the deep dark water. That's pretty much the only option when the rivers flowing 75cfs. We were drowning bugs then switched to dry dropper when they started looking up. Lass ate my dropper, but thanks for all the concern.


As far as overestimation... no doubt... apparently my weight gauge only applies to things made of iron. That and I can't say I've ever actually weighed a fish, so whatever