23 Inch Searun Rescued from Certain Death

[davpot]

My Nephew and I looked on in amazement as a visiting Florida angler caught and wrestles the largest searun Ive ever seen from the Kilchis today. He shouted: "Its a Keeper!!"
We shouted: "Its NOT a Keeper!" We finally prevailed on the nice fellow to let the fish go as per regs. Nothing quite like Catch and Release, even if you have to DISCUSS the matter. I was glad we kept our cool, while advocating for the poor fish: HE TOOK OFF LIKE A BOLT! What else goes on when Im not around!!??

[garyk]

Good job, Davpot. The fish gods will surely smile on you and reward you richly.

For my part, I might just 'keep' the next Florida tourist - is there a limit?

[SSPey]

wow - THAT'S a nice cutt. Did it have any gut or heft to it? Those genes are still "in the pool" swimming around, ready to chomp!

[C&R]

Dave,

Great job, 23 inch cutty please tell me it took a spider or sonething along that line.

I released 6 14-17" in cutty's this morning next time after the first pass with the two hander I'll bring the 3wt for some fun.

C&R

Great job! Im glad that 23 incher is alive and well.The florida tourist is a perfect example of why cutthroat trout fishing should stay catch and release on our coastal waters,there just too easy to catch and it wont take long for them to become scarce again. As far as the 23 incher being a record or something?, not even close. The upper reaches of an un-named tillamook basin river has some VERY LARGE bluebacks in it. Thank-god it is closed to fishing most of the year! Some of the coastal rivers in British Columbia have had sea-run cutthroat trout up to 40lbs being caught. Those of us that have caught cutthroats in our local streams have seen how hard they hit and fly out of the water upon being hooked. Ive been very fortunate to catch some very large sea-run cutthroat trout in british columbia and the land locked version at pyramid lake in nevada. We must continue to protect this fragile fish. The problem is that they are an easy target,because they are a predator species and will attack just about anything thrown at them and they are great eating.

[Pilar]

Davpot, did you 'splain to the visitor that reading the regs is a good idea? In Florida you can fish at night, use live bait fish and lots of other stuff you can't do here.
He probably just didn't know any better.

Wonder if Mr Blueback was some kind of record or something. Never seen one that big before. Good job Davpot, keep up the good work!

The bend is your friend!

Howdy,
I think if you get a Sea-run Cutt. in the 25-27in. range thats a fattie you might be pushing Washington's record. (6.0lb.) I know I've been trying for over 25 years. Its interesting to me how the 20in. mark for Cutthroat is often as elusive as the 20lb. plateau is for Steelhead. It would be an overwhelming experience trying to decide if a trout shuold be released or rushed to the closest certified scale(if taken in water open to harvest) Maybe I'll go to B.C. and take a shot at them 40lb.ers.