What Makes a Trophy Trout?

So what makes a trophy trout? A 10 pound brown? A 20 pound lake trout? An 18” golden trout? How about a 12” brook trout from a special beaver pond? I say, all of the above and more! A “trophy” trout means many different things to many different people. Let’s talk about it.

When I was 9 years old I caught a 27” rainbow out of Lake Wohlford, a stocked lake near San Diego, CA. I remember everything about that fish in vivid detail. It made “whopper of the week” for the lake and I was the proudest kid in 10 counties. That fish was a trophy trout to me at that time of my life and I couldn’t imagine catching anything bigger.

What you may perceive as a trophy at one point of your life may change as you grow in the sport.  I remember the first steelhead I caught on a fly. It was on the Siletz River in Oregon and I can see it in my mind clearly.

I had just watched Jim Teeny’s steelheading video and was employing some of his techniques when I spotted the fish in a deep slot. I cast upstream of the fish far enough so that my fly would present well to the fish.  After a few casts I saw the fish slide over and the line went tight. I was whooping and hollering so loud that my fishing buddy Derek came running to see what was wrong. I landed a fish of around 7 pound, my first steelhead on a fly rod and a true trophy to me at the time. As I became a more accomplished steelhead angler my vision of a trophy changed from 7 pounds to 10 pounds. Then it went from 10 pounds to 15 pounds. After hundreds of fish it topped out at 20 pounds. But the excitement felt on that first fly rod caught fish will never be forgotten.

Another important piece to what makes a trophy is where you caught your fish. A great lakes brown over 10 pounds is much easier to get than a west coast brown over 10 pounds. So a guy that has caught many 10 pounders from the great lakes may not value it the same as a guy on the west coast that had to put in 1000 hours to get one fish. For some of the lakes in Labrador a 5 pound brook trout is just an average fish but a 5 pounder for most of us is a monster.

One of the places I grew up fishing was the San Gabriel River in LA county (yes, there are native trout in LA county!). My buddy Kevin and I would drive up there and then ride mountain bikes a few miles back to get away from the other anglers. I remember one time rounding a corner and coming face to face with a black bear and swerving to miss it. It booked it up the hillside with wide eyes… probably told the same story to its kids. Most of the fish we caught were very small but every once in a while we would get a rainbow over 12”. You see, on that river a 12” fish was a “trophy”. I was just as excited to get some of those fish as I am now landing a 30” trout.

Another factor on “trophy” status is the species and even the type of trout you are chasing. For this discussion I will break trout up into the following categories: Native (always been there with naturally reproducing population), Wild (reproducing at location but original strain was not native), Fingerling Plant (stocked as small fingerlings but grew up in lake/stream), Catchable Planted (put and take fish that are usually caught in first season), Holdovers (catchables that “hold over” and are larger the following season) and Broodstock (fish that are stocked as “trophy trout” and are usually 5 pound plus, many times they are leftover “broodstock” from a hatchery).

I honed my light-line fishing skills on the giant stocked trout of Irvine Lake in CA. Even though these were planted fish… the big ones could be very tough to catch. Over time I noticed a small group of guys that seemed to be hooking up a lot. They had long yellow spinning rods, bobbers and small jigs. I watched them move around the lake and catch fish. The strange thing was they seemed to catch a LOT of fish over 5 pounds. So, I emulated them. I did some research and figured out they were fishing long fiberglass rods with 2-4 pounds test and small crappie or “mini” jigs. So, I saved up some money mowing lawns and bought a new kencor rod (I hope there is someone out there reading this article that knows exactly what I am talking about), shimano reel and spooled it with 2 pounds test… yes… 2 pound test. I found the right bobbers,the right jigs and started fishing. At first I didn’t catch anything and spent a bunch of days without any fish of consequence. But, I persevered and eventually stuck an 8 pounder. After that fish it was on. That fish gave me the confidence to work harder to figure it out and after a few years I was getting fish over 5 pounds on a regular basis. These were all “trophies” to me at that time.

I hope you all take a second to think about some of the great fish that you have caught over the years.  It was fun for me to go down memory lane and flash back to some of the trout that were, and still are, trophies in my life.

We all have visions of certain “trophies” or goals that we have when it comes to fishing.  It may be stocked rainbows on a river. It may be hiking into a small lake to catch some native cuttys. It may be traveling around the world to chase giant browns. To each of us a “trophy” trout is a different and special thing and that is the beauty of it… it is our own, individual journey.

Mark Knoch