12lb 9oz Lk Hopatcong Brown trout...

[buzzbaiter]

Good week for anglers at Lake Hopatcong...

[NJSquatch]

yeah that was the monster breeder stocked by the Knee Deep Club the previous Sunday. Allegedly it was stocked over 2.5 miles from where it was caught.

More monsters info

http://www.northjersey.com/community...ason-1.1545454

http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/spo...cong/83148250/

[River Renegade]

Now that's a bow nice trout!!

[icebadger]

congrats, that is a huge brown trout.what a monster

Don't know all the facts but personally hate seeing a trophy 49 inch musky killed for a photo shoot. When will people learn these fish should be handled with kid gloves and released so someone else has the privilege of maybe catching a fish of a lifetime themselves. These fish are true trophies and should be protected. That fish was probably caught any number of times giving the lucky angler the catch of a lifetime. State should protect these fish, we'd have 50 lb. - 60 lb. fish in the state if they did. Sorry for the rant but it takes forever for these fish to reach that size, it's criminal in my world killing one just to put it on your wall when you can have a replica which will last longer just as easily. Doesn't make any sense to me at all! Someone should hang Norm Small on the wall!

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by dakota560

Don't know all the facts but personally hate seeing a trophy 49 inch musky killed for a photo shoot. When will people learn these fish should be handled with kid gloves and released so someone else has the privilege of maybe catching a fish of a lifetime themselves. These fish are true trophies and should be protected. That fish was probably caught any number of times giving the lucky angler the catch of a lifetime. State should protect these fish, we'd have 50 lb. - 60 lb. fish in the state if they did. Sorry for the rant but it takes forever for these fish to reach that size, it's criminal in my world killing one just to put it on your wall when you can have a replica which will last longer just as easily. Doesn't make any sense to me at all! Someone should hang Norm Small on the wall!

I agree with you, although i do fish with friends that keep big fish occasionally and although i'll voice my opinion to them, I respect that too if it's their boat or their catch. you are totally right, i believe we really could have more giant fish here in NJ if more people released bigger fish.

Fortunately, though, in this situation, this was a fish just stocked by the KDC into lake hopatcong less than a week earlier and trout just don't survive the summers in lake hopatcong. so the trout in hopatcong is just a put and take fishery for trout