Connecticut’s New State Record Rainbow was Used to 'Help Trigger' Hatchery Salmon to Eat

A Connecticut angler recently caught a rainbow trout of epic proportions. On April 11, Richard Courtright Jr. was fishing at a Spring Fishing Day fishing derby on the West Branch of the Farmington River, where the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) had recently stocked trout. There was a rumor that the agency had stocked a state record—and Courtright spotted it in the water.

He threw everything he had in his box at the fish, including lures, spinners, and salmon eggs, to no avail. Then Courtright went back to his car to retrieve meal worms. It’s a good thing he did so. The fish took the bait and began running up and down the river as Courtright attempted to fight it on light tackle with six-pound test line.

“The drag was really loose, so it could do whatever it wanted to do," hetold CT Insider. “It felt like fighting a piece of plywood.”

Eventually, though, Courtright managed to land the fish. The rainbow trout measured 31 inches long with a girth of 21.25 inches. It tipped the scales at 16 pounds, 7.5 ounces, easily beating the previous record, a 14-pounder caught in 1998.

One of the reasons Courtright’s fish was so big is that it was actually prized for its ability to eat.According to a Facebook post, the fish was from the Kensington Hatchery, which does not typically rear rainbow trout. Instead, the hatchery focuses on Atlantic salmon, but hatcheries apparently have a hard time getting the salmon to eat pellets, or fish food.

That’s where Mr. Pellethead and his rainbow trout buddies come in. “Captive Atlantic salmon are timid about feeding on pellets at the hatchery,” explains CT DEEP. “To solve this fish culture problem, [we] add 20 or so rainbows, who love to eat and will start to feed immediately…once the Atlantic salmon see [and] sense the splashing, they are eager to join in.”

The nearly 17-pound rainbow trout was apparently even more eager than most trout and became the state record in the process. Courtright plans to mount the behemoth.

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