WORTH 1,000 WORDS

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On Huntingdon County waters in April, James Swearingen of McKees Rocks caught a 26-inch goldenrainbow while drifting a tiny single egg. On May 15 at Pine Creek near Etna, Al Gujski of Glenshawwas tossing a Rooster Tail when it was attacked by a 23-inch rainbow, photographed by Angelo Faragiliaof Glenshaw.

Big Fish

The preceding were the largest fish photographed in this year’s Post-Gazette Trout Photo Contest, but they weren’t the only entries in the Big Fish category. Lots of big honking trout are caught throughout Pennsylvania, and there’sa very good reason.

At state Fish and Boat Commission hatcheries, some trout are grown to large size and stocked in a successful effort to generateexcitement for fishing.

Big female trout that have lived beyond their reproductive years are removed from hatchery raceways and stocked as trophies. When a whopper is caught in Approved Trout Waters, it is almost never a native. The large stocked fish have usually been in the water just a short time beforethey were caught.

Another application of the excitement-for-fishing philosophy is the Keystone Select Stocked Trout Waters Program. In it, 30,000 excess brood fish 2½- to 3½-years-old and 14 inches to more than 20 inches in length are stocked at a rate of five or six per mile, in addition to the regular quantity of stocked trout, which average just over 11 inches. Started in 2016 at select Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only areas, the program has grown very popular among fly and spin anglers.

Golden rainbow trout also are raised to raise angling enthusiasm. Often, the fish are inaccurately called “palominos,” which were a less desirable blandcolored hatchery-bred trophy strain long since discontinued by Fish and Boat.The golden rainbow is arainbow whose unnatural coloration is the result of selective breeding. Golden rainbows are no smarter or stronger than any other rainbow trout. In fact, they are exactly the same as other hatchery rainbows with the exception of skin color.

Long Run, which parallels Route 48 in White Oak, is stocked by Fish and Boat just once per season. But on opening day Lucas Schmondiuk,14, of North Huntingdon, pulled out a rainbow measuring 22 inches andweighing 4½ pounds.

At 20⅞ inches, a beautiful golden rainbow taken at Dunlap Lake, Fayette County, is one of the biggest trout pictured in the Trout Photo Contest. But at 8 years old, the angler, Korey Gilmore of Glassport, could have been a Kidstuff contestant.

“We had our poles in the water by 7 a.m. [on that Mentored Fishing Day], and it was a very slow morning,” said Korey’s dad, Edward Gilmore, who shot the photo. “Korey caught his first rainbow trout around 9 a.m. and two others after that, but he didn’t want to keep any of those. He was waiting for ‘the big one.’ It was 11:50 and he only had 10 minutes left to fish because we had to be on the road by 12. Right before he had to bring in his line, he got it!” seven and must have missed10 or 15 others.”

Already a veteran angler, Reese knew to cast his bobber upstream, control slack line and set the hook when the bobber went down.

“I taught him the importance of releasing those fish, that they are there for everyone’s enjoyment and what a precious little creature it is,” Gardner said. “[Reece] knows before he touches a fish to wet his hands and slide his hand upthe back of the fish.”

Reece and his sister Brynn, 9, have spent a lot of time outdoors, camping and fishing at their family’s camp near PymatuningReservoir.

“I have to give credit to the local sportsmen’s club and the Fish Commission for posting the area at the outflow of Virgin Run Lake for children age 12 and under,” Gardner said. “We were the only one’s therethat day.”

Ella Yanni, 9, of Gibsonia, holds a rainbow caught while drifting a minnow from a canoe at North Park Lake on opening day, in a photo taken by her father, MattYanni. In a family fishing photo taken by ChristinePoorman of North Strabane, 4-year-old fishing veteran Bentley Poorman proudly displays trout taken at Canonsburg Lake in Washington County. And Dane Baker, 5, of Marianna, Washington County, gives a been-there-donethat sneer while showing off an 18-inch rainbow trout in a photo taken by his father, Joe Baker, at Ten MileCreek.

During the preseason in North Park Lake’s Approved Trout Waters Open to Year-Round Fishing waters, Rose Karavlan, 7, of McCandless, caught her first trout, a 12-inch rainbow. Corvin Hunter McBurney, 7, of O’Hara, landed his rainbow trout whileshore fishing.

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