Spent a bit of time today trout fishing in a local lake and caught this rainbow. For reference, the cutting board is 15 5/8" long. Also, these are stocker fish that are meant for catch and clean. This is the first trout I have ever taken in Il other than Lk Mich Steelies. Tom

Very nice fish. Makes me hungry just looking at it.

Thats a nice fish Tom! I'll bet it was a lot of fun to catch too. There isn't any fish that fights harder than a trout. In Indiana our stream opener is in 2 weeks on the 23rd. Meanwhile theres a couple of lakes about an hour north of me that I'm ready to try. Theres an 18 inch minimum size limit so theres got to be some dandies to be had there. Good luck fishing!

We don't have a length limit. As it is a 'put and take' fishery, the fish that are stocked are all big enough to be worth cleaning. The one I got is an exceptional specimen and as you can tell over 18" Most of the fish are more like 10-12". Tom

Posted By Pegsguy on 10 Apr 2011 09:33 AM
We don't have a length limit. As it is a 'put and take' fishery, the fish that are stocked are all big enough to be worth cleaning. The one I got is an exceptional specimen and as you can tell over 18" Most of the fish are more like 10-12". Tom

Thats what i was thinking. you don't see too many that size that are stocked. are you sure it wasn't one that survived from last year? I guess the misses will be getting a trout dinner.

Brian

The fish will be going to my son and his wife via my freezer. There is no way that fish made it through last summer, the water in the lake I caught it in gets way to warm for trout. Also, I saw a few others close to that size caught while I was there. If anyone noticed, the cutting board and knife are part of a set received as a gift from the club! Tom

Hey fellas, here in Indiana we have the put and take fisheries like that too. Typically they close a stream to fishing in early April and then stock it with feeder trout that are mostly in the 9 to 12 inch range. These are mostly rainbow trout but they do put in a few browns usually a little bigger about a pound and a half to two pounds. Thats the season that opens on the 24th of this month, and we do have a minimum size of 7 inches for that. Maybe because some of these trout do make it through and hold over and reproduce is why they have the 7 " size limit. I'm not really sure about that?? I know I've seen guys with a much bigger trout on the stringer occassionally but I guess that could have been put there too. The lake with the 18" min. size is just one of those occasions where the lake association has stocked that body of water and attempting to manage it to produce some outstanding fishing.

It looks like the one I caught was a leftover from last year's class that didn't get stocked last year and went in in this year's stocking. Most of the Illinois stockings are in smaller county managed ponds and lakes less than 10 acres. There really aren't any streams that get stocked. Tom