I do this sometimes via email with my fishing buddies, so I figured I would share. My commentary is in parentheses throughout the article.
Enjoy!
Background- Irvine Lake and Santa Ana River lakes are man-made lakes with their own hatcheries where they genetically create these roided up jabba trout.
exhibit A- look at the tail on this piece of garbage
World-class saltwater angler Greg Stotesbury of AFTCO Fishing Tackle Manufacturing Co. added another accolade to his already impressive array of fishing awards:
New Lake Record Holder for rainbow trout at Irvine Lake, with a monstrous 22.6 pounder.
World-class saltwater angler Greg Stotesbury of Mission Viejo nailed this new lake record 22.6 pound rainbow trout at Irvine Lake. The Mission Viejo angler just wanted to take a day off amid the grueling sportsmen’s show season (in which reps go from city to city putting on shows where they sit there with a cooler of beer under their table and go to nudie bars all night), so he headed down to Irvine Lake for only the second time in the last 10 years.
"My saltwater fishing club, Los Pescadores of Newport Beach (plug plug), was having a trout tournament at Irvine Lake,” related Stotesbury. “My wife and I anchored up in 19 feet of water off Trout Island. I saw a guy fishing nearby get a fish on something green, so that’s what I put on (I thought to myself, "I HAVE SOMETHING GREEN!").
Once the bait settled to the bottom, I got bit instantly, and the fish greyhounded (even though I dont know what it means, I love edgy angler banter) over the surface. (Ironically a greyhound is a skinny race horse and he is describing an obese frankenfish)
“The big fish hit on Turbo Dough Power Bait in the spring green/yellow color (well before it was just "something green" and all of the sudden he is pretty specific...wonder if Berkley sent you a case of bait as a result?), rigged on a #14 gold treble hook and 4-pound test Berkley 100-Percent Fluorocarbon line,” he explained. “We fought him for about five minutes (WHAT IN THE HELL WEIGHS 22 POUNDS AND ONLY FIGHTS FOR FIVE MINUTES? I spent 15 on a sierra trout that probably weighed 8 and it broke off), and my wife Dara did an expert job of netting it.
We had brought a very large net in anticipation of catching a big one,” Stotesbury said. “I’ve caught trout in the 8- to 9-pound class before at Lee’s Ferry. (should be another sentence here shouldn't there?) This fish was very powerful (not with half its tail worn off it wasnt), and would bust you off in a heartbeat if your drag wasn’t set properly.” (but I am a PROfessional)
Irvine Lake’s General Manager Dave Noyes added, “We’ve been dealing with our fish supplier, Tim Goodman at Calaveras Trout Farms, (the BALCO of hatcheries) for about 5 years now. When we got started, he promised that within 5 years we would have a new lake record fish. ("I am currently stuffing him full of andro and bacon and keeping him in a 10-gallon tank like a veal calf) We will have more of these big 20-pounders for the WON Tournament on April 18.” (because WON (western outdoor news) does full page, color ads for us)
(The people that run these lakes are actually trying to make it so their mutant dead-weight fish count as state records if they are HEAVY enough. Their ads in magazines look like ads for Truckasaurus making an appearance at Qualcomm Stadium during supercross)
Friday, March 27, 2009
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2 comments:
No kidding...definitely a frankenfish. Looks like a "quintloid" to me. But to answer your question about a five-minute fight with a 22-pound "psuedo-trout," I figure that being he's a "world-class saltwater fisherman" and the tournament was sponsored by a saltwater club (Los Pescadores of Newport Beach), he was using a six-foot boat rod with 50 lb. test. Nothing elegant about that fight or that fish!
Does Irvine lake have a parking lot? If so you can count me out. I'm a novice at fishing.
And I would love to land one large trout. But not like that. Grizz
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