We are really loving this trend of folks releasing fish that are more than likely new state or world records, as opposed to harvesting old fish to be weighed and mounted. For instance, take Joshua Giordano, who was fishing below California’s Oroville Dam when a tank of a rainbow trout nearly pulled his rod out of his hands.
“When I hooked this fish I knew immediately how giant it was when it peeled off 150 yards of line in about 20 seconds. I have never seen the power of a fish like it,” Giordano said.
“I was about to land him when he decided to do another hundred-yard run and the battle was on again. In an hour and 10 heart-stopping minutes, I was able to get my two hands on his tail.”
Once he got the fish to the bank, Giordano took some careful length and girth measurements (41″ length X 27″ girth) and released the 38-pound behemoth back into the tailwater.
“[Catching the fish] was one of the most amazing moments in my life,” Giordano wrote in a Facebook post. “[I was] so great full [sic] to have met this amazing fish. The legend lives on.”
this is a land locked steelhead dumped into the Oroville After Bay from the Feather River salmon and steelhead hatchery – they dump fish in there every year for people to catch… it swam up and gorged on pond smelt in front of the dam for a few years…:)
Thank you for releasing this Rainbow back into the wild. You are a true sportsman!
I am so impressed that Joshua didn’t need a world record title for his ego and instead released the genetics of that amazing trout back into the system. Live long and prosper is what I say to the hogs I’ve caught and let go.