I'm with you John 100 percent!





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I very rarely ever keep a fish anymore. They really are too valuable to catch only once.

These three pictures were taken on the West Branch of the Penobscot sometime in the mid-90’s. Little brookies during the day are cute but frustrating but about dusk when the spinner fall happens it is fast and furious as the last picture shows. Yes, she was delicious. And I think she was the last landlock I ever killed.

She took a size 16 Hendrickson spent-wing with chestnut dubbed body and spent CDC wings on a barbless hook.

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I agree with you. I have lived in western Maryland- starting my fourth year now and estimate that I have caught between 600 to 800 trout. I have released all of them except one. I kept a stocked rainbow trout that was way over 20 inches in Bear creek that was a old brooder the hatchery threw out. I almost wish I would have thrown him back too. I have seen several of the streams around here that have almost been ruined because of over harvesting. It was not uncommon in the cassleman river a few years ago to catch 20 inch Browns. Now your lucky to even catch a Brown as People couldn't bring themselves to throw them back. The Potomac River that holds most of the records has also went downhill and relies on stocked trout. Even though I caught over 20 trout the last couple of days-the brookie was the only native fish of the bunch. With plastic casts available now that look real-there is no reason to keep native fish.

I, along with Jay Gardner and Dave Tatman are lucky enough to be able to fish what is arguably the finest all natural- no stocking piece of water east of the Mississippi - The Holy Waters of the Au Sable. No released fish in here for over 50 years. If you want to kill fish, they are stocked downstream below a dam, so no upward migration

Here's where I go to decompress and it's 15 min. from home. I routinely run into anglers from the midwest and places other than MD and PA.

https://www.fishtalkmag.com/blog/wil...unpowder-river

https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/P...gunpowder.aspx

We have a couple of streams like that around here-most notably the lower Savage River(below the Dam) Its not stocked except for maybe some fingerling Browns. If you catch anything besides a Brown or Brookie they want you to keep it. Every once in awhile a stocked Rainbow will make it upstream from where the Savage runs into the Potomac. When you catch one of the wild browns or brookies in the Savage-you have to take a moment to admire the beautiful colors that you don't see on the stocked fish. Im sure you fellows feel the same way about the wild fish you catch in the Au Sable and other streams in your part of the country.

Tha blue haloes around the vermillion spots, the varigated wormlike markings on its back, the white and black lined pink/orange fins all make salvelinus fontinalis the crown jewel of wild boreal streams and ponds that I just can’t seem to get enough of...





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Your right about that Dean! Wild fish have a color that just can't be duplicated on stock trout. I really got ruined fishing out west when I fished some streams in the back country(16 to 20 miles in) of Yellowstone and Jackson Hole. Mostly caught wild cutts and brookies. The color of these wild fish(really liked the spots and red gash on the cutts) is unbelieveable. Also couldn't believe that some of these small streams that you could walk across could produce fish over 20 inches. Places like this are getting hard to find anymore in our country.

I was blown away by the beauty of the colors and the spots on the leopard rainbows of the Talachulitna River in Alaska!!





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Never have seen or heard of a leopard rainbow but I was watching a fishing show once where they were catching Rainbows (6 to 12 lbs) in one of the national parks(I think Denali) The rainbows were following salmon and gorging themselves on their eggs. These trout had some of the best color I have ever seen on a fish-The blood red stripe in the middle really set them off. I always wanted to fish Alaska but only got as far as Montana. That river you show in your pictures looks like a beautiful place to fish. One thing about Trout is they live in beautiful places-thats probably why I enjoy fishing for them more than any other species.