Had a fish today.

[220]

Quick fish in the little creek at the farm, 4 of the first 5 casts resulted in a hit or follow without a hookup.
Took a few more casts before I landed the first one and ended up with half a dozen for about 1hr flicking lures.
Fish are in great condition for the little creek they live in.
5cm rapala lure hanging out of their mouths so you can make your own judgement on size



Even the little ones are in good condition and much deeper than our usual little creek fish.

[Ozarkwoodswalker]

Cool beans. Thats great!

[Vaquero]

Nice, bet they are some good eatin.

RP

[BrokenolMarine]

Very nice, great way to spend the day. Beautiful fish.

Tina and I loved to fish in Virginia but since we moved here just haven't had the time. I am going to MAKE every effort to get out in the spring and summer. If we don't Tina intends to start selling off all the fishing gear. Sigh.

[JEBar]

beautiful .... very beautiful indeed

[North Country Gal]

That's my kind of farm. We don't have trout in our northern lake, but plenty of largemouth bass and northern pike and various other species.

[Hatchdog]

So what species are your fish? The silver one’s look similar to our Rainbow Trout with the spots and the red band on the side. But those dorsal fins look like spiny ray species here in the states. The yellow fish just looks “mean”.

Great pics and thanks for posting, big fish from a small creek.

[220]

Rainbow and brown trout, both are introduced and a fair bit of debate over whether they should still be stocking waterways with them or natives.
They do release fingerlings each year in this creek but 20 miles downstream and 1500 feet lower. From 2009-2019 5k brown a year 2020 was 10k and 2k rainbow, 5k brown in 2021 and 10k brown and 1k rainbow this year.
My catch is usually about 50/50 mix, I would say the majority of what I catch are all wild breed. Even from 2009-19 I was catching a similar number of rainbows to browns. Yesterday was only a single brown.

I thought after the fires in early 2020 fish numbers may drop off given the fire burnt around 1 million acres and most of that in a single day. The amount of ash etc that was finding its way into the creek with every storm for months after had the water black. The amount of fall in the creek means the water is only dirty for a day and the amount of white water must keep it well oxygenated even when dirty. Water levels in the creek have been significantly higher since the fires on the back of 3 wet years and billions less trees pulling moisture. The size of the biggest fish hasnt changed at around 18" but a few more of them and instead of the average size being 8-10" it is now probably 12-14" with the fish in significantly better condition noticibly broader and deeper

I have increased the size of the lures I use in the past few years, my favorite used to be 1 1/4" rapalas I now use 2" versions almost exclusively. Spinners will still out fish them on some days but the little minnow lures just seem to work any time of the year. I think they may actually provoke a territoriial response as well as looking like an easy feed.