Okay guys, don't kill me but...

[MXFishin]

Archbishop, I am in Wny also, where do you live, I live south west of rochester.




And how'd you get that picture up?

[d_balm24]

well im in western ny we have some great trout streams here the lakes produce bigger for me but around here 15" trout are the norm out of a stream are stockies are 10"-15"  if you know where to look some of our pools hold some true monsters

Indeed your right arch. Got a native rainbow last year 24.5 in. The creek is so small you can almost jump over it.

[archbishop]

southern tier i live in olean south of buffalo do you use photobucket if so you have to copy and past the img

and derek dont go jumping creeks i dont want you falling in friday and im gonna put that 24.5 to shame i told ya im going for that 30"

[archbishop]

hey mx if your just southwest of ra-cha-cha your just northeast of me where are you leroy, avon, geneseo maybe we could hook up sometime and ill show you where some good spots are

[gunner1]

So, I guess it's more about the pursuit for you guys then, huh? Well, to each their own, but I'm not all that impressed with them. I fished every opening day of trout season from sixth grade to twelvth with my dad and the most important thing was being out of school with my dad on some stream bank. Bottom line for me is that they just don't hold a "mystique" over me. Now stripers on the other hand....

[archbishop]

the pursuit and the fight of an animal thats spends it time going up hill all muscle wandering stream banks making that perfect cast with that perfect combo to open his mouth and last but not least the taste of trout mmmmmm

[devil-man]

For me it's just annual tradition...
Ice-out, then trout, then turkeys, then bass.
Maybe some pike in the fall...

Is everyone ready to get muddy on Friday? 

[archbishop]

i am and have a positive attitude about it nothing can change it so im ok with it gonna have fun too some years its muddy some its a blizzard

[Pasquatch]

I'm hoping the water calms down before the weekend.

[Kodiak Commando]

Wow this is a very interesting post and while i agree that most all fish have their strongpoints trout seem to have an aura to me for many reasons.

One reason has been mentioned before is the habitat. There is a reason you have never seen a golden  trout in anything but clear, pristine water and that reason is they can't live in it. I have seen bass and lots of other warmwater species in some pretty ugly wilderness, at least compared to where trout live. A great example is alaska where many people think of big trout and the closely related salmon and pristine wilderness.

Another reason that may push some peoples buttons is trout are treated like gods by most fisherman when they are realeased. They are carefully handled and layed in the water and released. I hate it when i see bass fisherman even great ones like van dam or brauer flip up a bass and let it flop around in the boat and put it in the livewell. Letting a fish flop around on anything dry is EXTREMELY bad for the fish as it makes it vulnerable to bacteria.

They are also really hard to catch in many situations and while bass are hard to catch also sometimes trout are usually harder to catch.

Finally in my experience all species of trout  are great fighters pound for pound. The same cannot be said for other families of fish. Smallmouth and stripers fight great but largemouth in my opinion are overated. The same can be said with sunfish or catfish. Oh yeah, before all you laker haters mention those lake trout, lake trout and are char as are bull trout and brook trout. Although brook trout are great fighters pound for pound lakers and bulls are not.

[outdoorsman]

I just love wandering the mountain streams in the middle of nowhere for little brookies.

Then again I also love trolling for big stripers which hit like a freight train.

I am torn!  But I love them all.

[onyunn]

Trout for me is SERENITY.

The Wiscoy Creek-Genesee Falls
Brown Trout, Brookies

[archbishop]

man onyunn i cant wait to go to your neck of the woods thats beautiful if its nice the wife may come with me

[d_balm24]

amazing picture onyunn. that is a great photo

[archbishop]

what are you doing next weekend derek you  could be standing there