Huuuuuge rainbow trout

[nate01]

Well I absolutely demolished my personal best trout...with a monster 24.5 inch rainbow. I couldn’t believe this thing lives in a New Jersey stream. Most of the fish have been in slow pocket water with the streams running high, but this one crushed a plug in the main current. My hands were shaking while I tried to fight this thing and land her with my bare hands...remind me to bring a net next time! Though I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have fit in my trout net anyway haha. It was battling so hard I was convinced I was going to lose it, what a relief when I finally got my hands on it. Released to fight another day.

[nate01]

Definitely ranks as one of my best catches ever. It’s funny I consider myself a bass fisherman as I’ve fished for them more than any other species but my numbers on bass are not that impressive. Biggest smallmouth I’ve ever caught is 18 inches, largemouth 20 inches. Yet I’ve got a 30 inch walleye, two ~4 foot brown sharks from the surf, and now a 24.5 inch rainbow to my name. Still waiting for my first musky and lake trout too. Someday soon.

[ALS Mako]

great job on the hand landing. nets are for sissys:p. i'm sure this is a memory to last a lifetime. congrats on the pb

[thmyorke1]

That's HUGE. The AX 4000 reel in comparison confused my head for a second, had to look up online how big the reel is. That helped me understand how big that trout actually is. WOW :eek:

[JDTuna]

What a beast! Congratulations.

[nate01]

Haha yeah for scale that reel is right around 6 inches top to bottom...this fish was a tank!

[oelgnal1]

Congratulations on your PB, thanks for letting it go so that it might give a similar thrill to someone else and we can only hope that they release it too to fight another day.

[Mikey topaz]

Hahah! There ya go man!! Nice breeder

[Hookmanski]

Thats a sweeeeeeeet bow dude! Nice catch!

[bigboy5522]

That will get your blood flowing for sure. sweet catch!!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Wow! That’s a breeder for sure! Great fish man! Must’ve been fun to land with to net! Congrats on the MONSTER PB BOW!!!:D

[AndyS]

That's YUGE !!! Congrats on the PB. Tail is beat up, was it spawning ???

[nate01]

That's YUGE !!! Congrats on the PB. Tail is beat up, was it spawning ???

Potentially...if you zoom in you can see a spot of bare skin (it’s circular and colored red/blue) down by the beat up tail also...there was another one to match it on the other side. Not sure what they were from but my first thought was maybe a male got frisky. For what it’s worth, a big male fatty I got last week in a different spot sprayed me with a little something special too

[icebadger]

congrats on the pb that is a real nice fish.. you get an atta boy for the release as well nice work.

[ScowardNJ]

Congrats on the PB!