Rubber Trout

[SHigSpeed]

Tired of Yuba skunks, I visited a local rubber trout pond near a golf course and airport this morning.

As I pulled up I was shocked to find a nearly full parking lot!! Turned out to be some sort of dog training class, but there were still quite a few bankies out. Casted a few times from shore - missed and scored right away. Looking up already, and the skunk's off! :)

Ended up with a whole damn town of fish and the arm, though sore, didn't fall completely off. I think the short rod (7'9" 3 wt) helped a bit in this department.

Interesting thing was the strain of fish the DFG dropped off:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2720/4261258806_0a29994eec.jpg

Almost looks like a Kern River rainbow, and a lot of the fish had these late in life parr marks and yellowish tint to 'em.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4261292528_29cc3a6bb2.jpg

Pretty calm and foggy overcast day, not much of a breeze ever at all. Only saw a couple of rises, and perhaps they were to floating fluorescent candies that these guys love.

Good times...

_SHig

[SHigSpeed]

On second though (or actually what I initially was thinking while on the lake), it may be closer to the McCloud Redband strain? Has a few more spots tho...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4260619971_4eb68c9f6f.jpg

_SHig

[Ed Wahl]

Shig, this is just another manifestation of our state government's inability to operate under a budget.

They're saving money on raising trout in hatcheries by trapping McCloud River Redbands and Kern River Rainbows and stocking them in ex air force base pond waters. :shock::\\

Ed

[SHigSpeed]

Brilliant! Next they'll be building a tunnel directly instead of trapping...

_SHig

[Frank.S]

Very interesting. Notice the white on the tips of the fins. I wonder which hatchery they came from:?:

[medfly]

best looking hatchery fish i have seen!

[michaeln]

Looks like that fish's mama had an active social life.

[Scott V]

I was real surprised by how much fight those fish had. Usually planters in these smaller lakes are pretty small with little to no fight. But these were a nice change, hopefully this change will remain and they will continue to plant better fish.

I was a little worried at the start when the first fish I caught was probably one of the smallest planters I have ever caught, but then it changed and it was nice fish most of the time. Either way it was a great day on the water with good company as always.

[Garrett S]

I fished a local pond on saturday and also noticed the coloring was different and the fish put up a pretty good fight