1 month ago
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SHAVER LAKE, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - A monster-sized trophy trout was caught successful Shaver Lake Friday, perchance mounting a caller grounds for the largest German brownish trout ever caught there.
An mean brownish trout typically weighs betwixt 1 to 5 pounds. However, connected Friday, Steve Jones of Clovis made an awesome catch: a trophy trout weighing 24 pounds and 40 ounces.
"It was, it was rather an ordeal, rather a shock," Jones said.
Jones says helium started sportfishing astatine Shaver Lake with his dada arsenic a kid. Now, it's a passionateness helium shares with his grandkids and a hobby that fills his days successful retirement.
"I food up there, depending connected the clip of the year, you know, sometimes a mates times a week," helium said.
On Friday, Jones was retired connected the h2o unsocial and was astir to telephone it a day when helium realized determination was thing connected his line.
"I thought I was snagged until I started trying to get the enactment back, and it took off," helium said.
He says it took him astir 30 minutes to reel successful the colossal fish. Once it surfaced the water, helium realized his nett was acold excessively small.
"I had to get up, get him up adjacent to the vessel and scope implicit and drawback him nether the gills," Jones said.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife lone keeps records statewide, not by lake. So, portion there's nary authoritative record, galore section trout experts person hailed Jones' haul arsenic a record-breaking monster.
Tim Young of the Shaver Lake Trophy Trout Project told YourCentralValley.com that the past known record-breaking trout weighed successful astatine 20 pounds, backmost successful the aboriginal '80s.
Since then, the largest trout that came adjacent was astir 18 pounds. But Jones' food dominated the waters of Shaver Lake, coming successful astatine 24 pounds and 40 ounces, and measuring 37.5 inches long.
"Just yesterday made arrangements to person it mounted astatine the taxidermist," helium said.
Each year, the water is replenished with a assortment of food species. The Department of Fish and Wildlife releases brownish and rainbow trout, on with Kokanee. The Shaver Lake Trophy Trout Project recently released implicit 3,200 rainbow trout, making the water a fashionable sportfishing destination.
"People coming, you know, 4 oregon 5 hours away. We've adjacent had radical travel overseas conscionable looking for immoderate truly bully trout," the Fishing Sales Lead astatine Shaver Lake Sports, Jarrett Watson, said.
Even aft Jones' singular achievement, he's already readying to caput backmost to the h2o to bask what helium loves.
