TroutFishingBear's Trout of Fame (trout 7/3)

[TroutFishingBear]

I want to see a picture of your huge bluegill next to a tape measure. 

alright, but you'll have to wait until next spring, at least until early may, until I catch some more. By first of june next year it will be all to easy to show you the pictures. The fish, unless the lake is winterkilled (it definitely could with the low water ) will be all to easy to get bluegills in the 11-13" range

[crappie66]

I just want to see a close up shot of the bluegill next to a tape measure.  The pictures I have seen do appear to make the bluegill above average size, but they look more like hybrid bluegills than wild strain.  I wouldn't worry so much about a winterkill on the bluegill, they are a very hardy fish.  The pond here where I live is only 4 or 5 feet deep at the very most with most areas only 3 feet or so and the fish always survive.

[TroutFishingBear]

I assure you, they are pure, wild bluegill. I hope you will be patient with the pictures... it will be a long time before I can fish this lake effectively again because ice fishing is prohibited 

As for pictures making fish seem larger: I have found that to be the case at times, and other times the fish are far smaller in pictures. It all depends on how the fisherman is holding the fish, the lighting, and the angle.

[TroutFishingBear]

here's some pics I posted on the shanty, and I finally decided to put them here as well. I posted these on 12/14/04 on the shanty so please forgive me if I mention last saturday or whatever, it wasn't.
Alright... this is my latest roll of film. Some are icefishing pictures, some are open water.
Here's me with a 6 footer that spooled tons of line and jumped a couple of times And I landed the beast on 6 lb. test He was released
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Extremely fat rainbow released
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brown released

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very fat rainbow released
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good brown on henry's fork of the snake released
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rainbow released
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pretty brown released
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another pretty brown released
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great rainbow on henry's fork of the snake released
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TroutFishingBear's first limit of rainbows of the icefishing year from vega. For perspective, the small fish is 14"
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another view of first limit of year icefishing
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vega reservoir picture
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a couple other fish from vega

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mackdaddy 21 and my limits put together from first icefishing trip to vega, most fish 16-21"
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more to come. I have 11 pictures on two different cameras that are all icefishing. Should be up in a couple of weeks along with taylor reservoir pics. Hope you will enjoy some upcoming 4 lb. rainbows I caught on sat. at vega and hopefully some huge lakers from taylor.

[TroutFishingBear]

ya know, mack showed me some pictures from april of 2001 I think. I have a smaller appx.10" gill and he has one a bit over 11". We didn't take as many pictures back then as we did now. I think this was when I was 12 and he was 18 or 19.
This picture is of a tiny jerry creek  bluegill that slammed a 1/4 oz. rattletrap
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Here's mack with the average jerry creek bluegill. It hammered a 5" fluke
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[Mikepike]

i enjoyed looking at all of your trout, id like to fish for rainbows sometime, but they arent around here but there is very nice brookies here

[TroutFishingBear]

Sadly TroutOfFame fans, I never did find that camera. That will just go into the books of 20 big rainbows LOST IN TIME!!!:'(

Here is a small taste of my winter fishing adventures! (The adventures, although they appear to be me catching the H-E double L out of those rainbows/cuttbows, usually involve behind the scenes falling down on my big butt )

Here's a rainbow/cuttbow appx. 20" released of course

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Very fat female, actually a pure rainbow I believe, released
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That is only a taste of what I have done this winter! Go to iceshanty.com and check out the thread in the pictures section titled: TFB's 2004-2005 ice pics

[Pasquatch]

Stupid water with fish that actually bite...
Great fish, I like that six footer, pulled one of them up through a hole today...lol

[TroutFishingBear]

Stupid water with fish that actually bite...
Great fish, I like that six footer, pulled onme of them up through a hole today...lol

Sometimes on the colorado river, in a slow hole if it has been very cold, we have to catch the icebergs before we can start fishing. Those things are like 30 ft. LOL

Here's my dad with a couple of nice rainbows on the colorado river this year.
We've always thought of sending this one to cabelas, because of the logo on his waders. We wouldn't dare wade in this water, because it is over 10 ft. deep right off of the bank, but they are warm in the winter.

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Here is a nice, typical rainbow on the colorado
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[Pasquatch]

I wish I had bow like that, dang, they are some beauties...definately try to sell it to Cabela's. Lol

[Kodiak Commando]

TFB Wrote

Sometimes on the colorado river, in a slow hole if it has been very cold, we have to catch the icebergs before we can start fishing. Those things are like 30 ft. LOL

I know what you mean, i 'v been to the kenai a few times and couln'd pull out the drift boat cuz of all the icebergs.

Those are some nice fish, hopefully i can have a K.C. trout of fame at the end of the year

[TroutFishingBear]

Cool K.C.! I look forward to seeing it! A lot of times in the winter, especially in the morning on the colorado river, we catch our biggest fish but cannot take pictures of them because of the ice ledge, and we cannot bring the fish over it. Usually we just let the fish flip off then. We'd rather let a 10 lb. rainbow survive then to get a picture of it.

[Kodiak Commando]

Yeah, it's tempting to take lots of photos but i have realeased some big fish of various species without taking pics because i don't want to hurt the fish.

[TroutFishingBear]

kodiak, what's your average day on the kenai? I just want to know exactly how much better it is there than here on average.

[Kodiak Commando]

It depends on the time of year there are some times in the year where the fishing isn't as consistent hour in and hour out as the colorado, mostly in the winter. Early season fishing between the first of march and and april 8 (when they close the river for spawning) I would say on an average day each person would catch 3 fish but since the big fish start moving to spawn first your average fish will be between 4 and 6 pounds. Last year on march 25 we caught 20 fish between 6 people in two drift boats but they were all between 7 and 14 pounds. I don't generally fish the kenai in the summer because it is so crowded the fall is awesome however. On an average day you will catch 30 to 40 fish averaging around 3 pounds but you should be able to catch a good amount of 4 to 8 pounders and maybe a 10 plus pounder if you are lucky and a skilled fly fisherman or really skilled lure fisherman (raibows will generally be more subsebtable to flies and if you spin fish you will be drifting flies with slip bobbers). I generally like fishing the naknek more however mostly because it gets far less pressure than the kenai and you will catch more 10 plus pounders. The kenai has lots of drift boats and shore fisherman for trout and salmon but on the naknek i have fished with no one in sight. The kenai is the numer one fished river by tourists and locals but it's still an amazing fishery cuz of great managment, only 1 rainbow a year can be kept but most guides are stictly catch and realease.