iStockphoto / christiannafzger / Holcy
Rainbow trout are one of the most iconic and beautiful freshwater fish in North America. Their colors are absolutely stunning, and the fact that they can be caught from coast to coast and as far south as Texas and Georgia make it a fish that Americans from completely different walks of life can bond over a shared love and appreciation for the species.
While they’re not the largest of the trout species, averaging 11-20″ in length and 1-8 pounds, but sometimes they do get massive! Case in point, the new Connecticut state fishing record for rainbow trout which just unseated the fish which had held the record for the past 28 years.
New Connecticut State Fishing Record For Rainbow Trout
Prior to 20-year-old Richard Courtright’s new Connecticut state fishing record, the state’s record for rainbow trout had stood firm since 1998 at 14 pounds and 10 ounces, a fish caught in Mansfield Hollow Lake. There have been A LOT of rainbow trout in the Nutmeg State in the past 28 years and it is incredible the record hadn’t fallen until now.
Rich Cartright is a 20-year-old powerplant inspector from Bethel, Connecticut, according to Wired2Fish, and on the morning of April 11 he was fishing the West Branch Farmington River when he hooked up with the record-setting fish. Trout fishing season just opened up in Connecticut and this just so happened to be the very first day of the season.
The West Branch Farmington River near New Hartford is a lively fishery that offers anglers the chance to catch trout and Atlantic salmon. After Rich caught his fish on April 11th it did not take long for the state of Connecticut to certify is new record rainbow trout:
Richard Courtright / Connecticut Fisheries
His fish tipped the (official) scales at 16 pounds and 7.5 ounces, nearly 2 full pounds heavier than the previous record set in 1998.
Speaking with Wired2Fish after the catch, Cartright said “I thought it was a log at first and then I saw its head, and I freaked out. I don’t know if it was there all day, but the spot I saw it in, it was pretty camouflaged — I wouldn’t put it past it to just sit there all day unnoticed.”
What’re They Biting On?
Given that it was the first day of the trout fishing season, it wasn’t uncommon for anglers to pull out everything in their arsenal to see what the fish were eating. Rich said he threw “everything I had in my tackle box” at the fish.
While casting with a spinning reel setup with 6lb test fishing line, he eventually settled on a mealworm which is what the massive trout took. He said the fish made several big runs downstream before it began swimming in circles.
Rich was fishing in the opening day 76th-annual Riverton Fishing Derby which ended at 10am and he had been fishing since the local pancake breakfast at 4am that morning. His dad, also named Richard, was there and said “all I could do was watch. I couldn’t even help him net the fish. He did it by himself.”
It’s a good thing he didn’t help because that might’ve disqualified the record in some way. And at the end of the day, he certainly caught the largest fish in the derby as well as a new Connecticut state record for the rainbow trout species.
As a point of comparison, the Connecticut records for other trout species are 9lbs3oz for brook trout, 19lbs0oz for brown trout, 29lbs13oz for lake trout, and 7lbs14oz for the tiger trout hybrid species. And the IGFA all-tackle fishing world record for rainbow trout is a 48 pound, 0 ounce fish caught by angler Sean Konrad on September 5, 2009 on Lake Diefenbaker, Canada. So they do get massive!