Yesterday afternoon, while trolling a silver/chartreuse Trixie flutter spoon on Cayuga Lake, I boated a real beauty - an enormous brown trout. Since it was too awesome a speciman to put a knife to, and because I decided I did not want to dust it for the rest of my life, I retuned it to Cayuga's waters.
The fish was tired from the battle ( 20+ minutes - I took it on 6 lb line) , so I exercised a lot of alacrity getting it back into the lake. After a suprisingly brief revival period in my hand, the fish regained good strength, and bolted away. But in the brief time it was on board, all I had a chance to do was measure it.
The brown was a female, and measured 29 inches. It was rounder and fatter than I can ever describe. Forget football shaped, this one was almost bowling ball shaped. It was an enormous slab of a fish. One side alone - just the flank, not the back or belly - was about probably 12 or 13 inches in length.
I have never caught a trout like this, so I am hoping some of you guys who regularly take this size and shape brown in Ontario can give me some idea about how much the thing weighed. Is it 10 lbs? 12 ? More??
I realize it's no trophy in Ontario, but I don't hear of many browns of this size coming from the Finger Lakes ! And what a fight - it even sailed out of the water 3 times! It's quite a splash something that size makes upon re-entry.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out on this.
Skanbow