Help requested from Ontario brown trout anglers

[Skanbow]

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

[bluegillking]

it looks like that would be about 15 -17lbs

[waterdawg14622]

According  to  a chart @ the NYSDEC website a 29 inch brown is suppose to weigh 9 lbs 11 oz.  That is just based on an average weight though.  Like people, fish are different too.  I have fished Lake Ontario many of years for trout and salmon, and from my experience a "football" brown @ 29" would be 12 pounds or more.   Just the length alone can only give you a rough estimate.  But if you measure the girth also, you can get close to the actual length.  Better yet, buy a quality digital scale, and you'll know for sure next time.  I commend you on catch-and-release.  It takes a few years for a fish to get that big and the smaller ones are tastier anyway.    Nice catch!

[Jigwiggler]

Sounds like one heck on a nice brown!  I took a 30" brown from Seneca this spring that weighed roughly 10 - 11 lbs. (weight estimation formula).  That fish was not nearly as heavy as you are describing, so my guess for the fish that you caught is 14 - 16 lbs.  Try to get a pic next time, I would have liked to see that one!!