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STATE RECORD RAINBOW -- Jim Matthews 23nov05
Outdoor News Service
28.1-pound rainbow from Santa Ana River Lakes topples state trout record
Michael Lopez was anxious. He knew Santa Ana River Lakes had been stocked the evening before with the biggest trout ever planted in any lake in California, and he wanted a crack at one of the big ones.
The 15-year-old angler from Paramount arrived at the lakes with his father Bernard nearly and hour after the gate had opened last Thursday. They stopped into the tackle shop to chat and pick up some bait, and then they went to their favorite spot on Chris' Pond. The young angler rushed to the water. "It was my first cast. I wasn't even done putting on my boots," said the younger Lopez. The trout took the small jig-Nitro worm combo and Lopez set the hook.
"I thought he was a small one at first. Then he started peeling line -- and peeling and peeling," said Lopez.
After 20 minutes of delicate battling on two-pound test line, Bernard slipped the net under the huge trout and netted the fish for his son. The elder Lopez told his boy that the trout was bigger than the huge rainbow that he'd caught at this same lake in 2002, a 24.09-pound trout that held the state record for just four days before it was replaced with a 26-pounder. It was just a few minutes later that the young man's trout was confirmed to weigh 28.1-pounds on the lake's certified scale, breaking the state record of 27 1/2 pounds caught by John Chapman of Anaheim at this same lake two seasons ago.
They say that 10 percent of the anglers catch 90 percent of the trout, and its probably 10 percent of that 10 percent who catch 90 percent of the biggest trout. A look at the catch logs at Santa Ana River Lakes over the past decade shows that its the same anglers over and over again who make the best catches, but its an even smaller group of names scrawled next to the catches of the huge Mt. Lassen Trout Farms triploid rainbows stocked in this lake, according to Craig Elliott, who manages the promotion program at Santa Ana River Lakes and Corona Lake. The simple reality is that most anglers, event he good anglers on those catch logs, can't land a 25-plus pound trout on the two- or four-pound test line required to hook one. Michael Lopez is going to be one of those names that will show up next to the big fish.
"When I told John Chapman his record had been broken by Mikee, he laughed. `I knew it would be him. I knew it would,' he said. Mikee has grown up fishing this lake and he's had the best teachers," said Elliott.
The young Lopez said this was his third chance at one of the huge trout in Santa Ana River Lakes. A couple of season back he hooked another huge trout that ran straight across the small Chris' Pond and then cut along the opposite shoreline, snagging him in several other angler's lines before breaking off. Then he found a huge trout and was trying to entice it into biting his small jig when another angler literally dove into the water onto the fish.
"This was my third chance and I wasn't going to lose him this time," said Lopez, who's been fishing the lake since he was three.
Off track from school, the young angler has been fishing the lake nearly every day since last Thursday. He was hoping his record would last longer than his father's record, knowing there was at least one other trout already in the lake that was about the same size -- or maybe bigger -- than his fish. There is also a chance bigger trout could be planted this week for the holiday weekend.
Elliott said that trout from 10 pounds up to the new state record and bigger will be planted each week through the end of the year at the lake. A 30-pounder would not be out of the question. For the young Lopez, like his father, his glory may be short lived.
30-POUND RAINBOWS?: Santa Ana River Lakes and Corona Lake have an exclusive purchase agreement with the Mt. Lassen Trout Farms in Red Bluff for its biggest rainbow trout each year. It is these huge fish that have broken the state record four of the past five years at Santa Ana River Lakes -- most recently this past week with a 28.1-pounder. But why do they get so big? Why do they fight so hard? And how big can they get?
These "triploid" trout have not been raised on hormones or genetically engineered. They are the product of decades of selective breeding, a carefully honed natural diet that recognizes that trout need different types of food and nutrition at different stages of their life, and perhaps most importantly, they are put through a process that sterilizes the trout shortly after the eggs are fertilized, and this is what makes them triploid.
This last step prevents the trout from maturing sexually or reproducing. Farmers and veterinarians have neutered animals and poultry for many years so they can reach their maximum growth potential in the shortest amount of time. While all animals expend great amounts of energy in reproduction, trout and salmon utilize so much energy that many die after spawning is complete. Even trout that survive the cycle are severely weakened. They lose weight, their meat becomes soft, and they are susceptible to a variety of diseases. By making the trout sterile, they do not waste energy growing eggs and trying to spawn. They can reach huge sizes.
"The main reason for that is they continue to eat and grow all winter long," said Phil Mackey, owner of Mt. Lassen Trout Farms. "Regular diploids go into a spawning mode and they don't eat much. It's just very stressful on the fish, and they don't have the stamina. Triploids are younger for their weight than diploid fish and they are generally a more fit fish, especially during the winter months."
The sterilization process for trout eggs is done by subjecting the trout eggs to warm water about 10 minutes after fertilization when the eggs are first dividing. In normal, diploid trout, there are two chromosomes that determine sex, but because of the heat-shocking process, the trout develop with a third sexual chromosome that makes them sterile. These are triploids. Fishery biologists believe some of the huge fish caught in the wild are actually triploids. This sterilization process can occur under the right conditions in nature, happening about one percent of the time, according to some studies.
Anglers who are familiar with the life cycle of Pacific salmon know how the spawning process has a very profound, adverse effect on fish. The experience is so devastating that the fish goes through a wasting process where in the fish's body disintegrates, eventually resulting in death of the fish. Trout are in the same family as Pacific salmon. As a result of these yearly reproductive cycles, rainbow trout are very rarely caught weighing in excess of seven to eight pounds in the wild, and even hatchery rainbows, without sterilization, can rarely be raised much bigger than the low teens in weight.
Perhaps more importantly, for nearly half the year, the trout are in a compromised physical condition. While spawning trout might be aggressive, they don't have the health and vigor of sterile fish. For an angler, that simply means they don't fight as well. For hatchery managers, sterilizing the fish avoids these devastating annual cycles, and raising large fish and even quality catchable-sized trout becomes more economical because they grow bigger, faster, and healthier. According to Mackey, they are the pinnacle of trout husbandry and nutrition. The staff at Santa Ana River Lakes' simply calls them Super Trout.
How big can they get?
Phil Mackey will tell you he really doesn't know.
"I'd have told you three or four years ago that 25 or 26 pounds was tops, but we blew right through that. We actually have had -- and do have -- trout that have bounced over 30 pounds, and I don't doubt we can go over that," said Mackey. "Where the top is, I don't know."
Outdoor News Service
28.1-pound rainbow from Santa Ana River Lakes topples state trout record
Michael Lopez was anxious. He knew Santa Ana River Lakes had been stocked the evening before with the biggest trout ever planted in any lake in California, and he wanted a crack at one of the big ones.
The 15-year-old angler from Paramount arrived at the lakes with his father Bernard nearly and hour after the gate had opened last Thursday. They stopped into the tackle shop to chat and pick up some bait, and then they went to their favorite spot on Chris' Pond. The young angler rushed to the water. "It was my first cast. I wasn't even done putting on my boots," said the younger Lopez. The trout took the small jig-Nitro worm combo and Lopez set the hook.
"I thought he was a small one at first. Then he started peeling line -- and peeling and peeling," said Lopez.
After 20 minutes of delicate battling on two-pound test line, Bernard slipped the net under the huge trout and netted the fish for his son. The elder Lopez told his boy that the trout was bigger than the huge rainbow that he'd caught at this same lake in 2002, a 24.09-pound trout that held the state record for just four days before it was replaced with a 26-pounder. It was just a few minutes later that the young man's trout was confirmed to weigh 28.1-pounds on the lake's certified scale, breaking the state record of 27 1/2 pounds caught by John Chapman of Anaheim at this same lake two seasons ago.
They say that 10 percent of the anglers catch 90 percent of the trout, and its probably 10 percent of that 10 percent who catch 90 percent of the biggest trout. A look at the catch logs at Santa Ana River Lakes over the past decade shows that its the same anglers over and over again who make the best catches, but its an even smaller group of names scrawled next to the catches of the huge Mt. Lassen Trout Farms triploid rainbows stocked in this lake, according to Craig Elliott, who manages the promotion program at Santa Ana River Lakes and Corona Lake. The simple reality is that most anglers, event he good anglers on those catch logs, can't land a 25-plus pound trout on the two- or four-pound test line required to hook one. Michael Lopez is going to be one of those names that will show up next to the big fish.
"When I told John Chapman his record had been broken by Mikee, he laughed. `I knew it would be him. I knew it would,' he said. Mikee has grown up fishing this lake and he's had the best teachers," said Elliott.
The young Lopez said this was his third chance at one of the huge trout in Santa Ana River Lakes. A couple of season back he hooked another huge trout that ran straight across the small Chris' Pond and then cut along the opposite shoreline, snagging him in several other angler's lines before breaking off. Then he found a huge trout and was trying to entice it into biting his small jig when another angler literally dove into the water onto the fish.
"This was my third chance and I wasn't going to lose him this time," said Lopez, who's been fishing the lake since he was three.
Off track from school, the young angler has been fishing the lake nearly every day since last Thursday. He was hoping his record would last longer than his father's record, knowing there was at least one other trout already in the lake that was about the same size -- or maybe bigger -- than his fish. There is also a chance bigger trout could be planted this week for the holiday weekend.
Elliott said that trout from 10 pounds up to the new state record and bigger will be planted each week through the end of the year at the lake. A 30-pounder would not be out of the question. For the young Lopez, like his father, his glory may be short lived.
30-POUND RAINBOWS?: Santa Ana River Lakes and Corona Lake have an exclusive purchase agreement with the Mt. Lassen Trout Farms in Red Bluff for its biggest rainbow trout each year. It is these huge fish that have broken the state record four of the past five years at Santa Ana River Lakes -- most recently this past week with a 28.1-pounder. But why do they get so big? Why do they fight so hard? And how big can they get?
These "triploid" trout have not been raised on hormones or genetically engineered. They are the product of decades of selective breeding, a carefully honed natural diet that recognizes that trout need different types of food and nutrition at different stages of their life, and perhaps most importantly, they are put through a process that sterilizes the trout shortly after the eggs are fertilized, and this is what makes them triploid.
This last step prevents the trout from maturing sexually or reproducing. Farmers and veterinarians have neutered animals and poultry for many years so they can reach their maximum growth potential in the shortest amount of time. While all animals expend great amounts of energy in reproduction, trout and salmon utilize so much energy that many die after spawning is complete. Even trout that survive the cycle are severely weakened. They lose weight, their meat becomes soft, and they are susceptible to a variety of diseases. By making the trout sterile, they do not waste energy growing eggs and trying to spawn. They can reach huge sizes.
"The main reason for that is they continue to eat and grow all winter long," said Phil Mackey, owner of Mt. Lassen Trout Farms. "Regular diploids go into a spawning mode and they don't eat much. It's just very stressful on the fish, and they don't have the stamina. Triploids are younger for their weight than diploid fish and they are generally a more fit fish, especially during the winter months."
The sterilization process for trout eggs is done by subjecting the trout eggs to warm water about 10 minutes after fertilization when the eggs are first dividing. In normal, diploid trout, there are two chromosomes that determine sex, but because of the heat-shocking process, the trout develop with a third sexual chromosome that makes them sterile. These are triploids. Fishery biologists believe some of the huge fish caught in the wild are actually triploids. This sterilization process can occur under the right conditions in nature, happening about one percent of the time, according to some studies.
Anglers who are familiar with the life cycle of Pacific salmon know how the spawning process has a very profound, adverse effect on fish. The experience is so devastating that the fish goes through a wasting process where in the fish's body disintegrates, eventually resulting in death of the fish. Trout are in the same family as Pacific salmon. As a result of these yearly reproductive cycles, rainbow trout are very rarely caught weighing in excess of seven to eight pounds in the wild, and even hatchery rainbows, without sterilization, can rarely be raised much bigger than the low teens in weight.
Perhaps more importantly, for nearly half the year, the trout are in a compromised physical condition. While spawning trout might be aggressive, they don't have the health and vigor of sterile fish. For an angler, that simply means they don't fight as well. For hatchery managers, sterilizing the fish avoids these devastating annual cycles, and raising large fish and even quality catchable-sized trout becomes more economical because they grow bigger, faster, and healthier. According to Mackey, they are the pinnacle of trout husbandry and nutrition. The staff at Santa Ana River Lakes' simply calls them Super Trout.
How big can they get?
Phil Mackey will tell you he really doesn't know.
"I'd have told you three or four years ago that 25 or 26 pounds was tops, but we blew right through that. We actually have had -- and do have -- trout that have bounced over 30 pounds, and I don't doubt we can go over that," said Mackey. "Where the top is, I don't know."
