unofficial canadian record rainbow

[Smitty]

was reading the manitoulin website for weather conditions for the last while and came upon this.

heres the link

http://www.manitoulin.ca/

[charlieD]

All I can say is HOLY CRAP!!! What a fat hog that is, I would be smiling like that too. Very sad that fish had to die....would love to hook into a spawn from that fish!!

[Guest bigfish1965]

No spawn in that fish charlie. I would pretty much bet the farm it was a triploid (genetically altered asexual) fish escaped from one of the local fish farming pens.

[Guest Jeetmuck]

That is one awesome fish. As BF65 says, probably an escaped Croker, they get huge up there. Tried ice fishing for them last year, lots of them but very spooky under the ice, didn't see any that big though.

[denis]

WOW

[Fishin-nut]

Definately a croker. Nice fish though

[smerchly]

I don't know what they feed those Croker fish , but you have to wonder if they are safe to eat . There must be either a lot of fat or steriodal muscle mass . They could prob. produce 40 lb. eyes in there ! Imagine, 10 lb. perch ! They must be fed the same stuff they give to farm animals and birds to plump them up.....every pound of "whatever" is a pound of $$ to them . The guy was using 6 lb line on that hog and boated it in 10 min ?? Compare that to a 40 lb carp on 6 lb line..........I think we will see new world records caught via Crokersville technology ........Hey Jeets.......we will need bigger ice augers to get them through the hole !!!

[Guest Markus]

Here's tha newspaper article regarding this Awesome fish...

Island waters yield record rainbow trout

by Jim Moodie

LITTLE CURRENT-Now this was a keeper. Anglers Bruce and Joanne Vendramin, of Sudbury, knew they'd hooked onto something special last Wednesday afternoon while downrigging with six-pound test line and a 300 AC Shiner lure near Fisher Harbour. "It was quite heavy," said Mr. Vendramin. "We played it for about 10 minutes, and finally it got tired and floated to the surface."

That's when the couple realized that their catch wasn't just special, it was spectacular: a mammoth rainbow trout of apparent record-shattering proportions. If they could just get it in the boat.

"We picked it up in the net, and it broke right through the bottom," said Ms. Vendramin. Fortunately, at that point the couple had the net positioned over the boat, so the behemoth "just slipped through to the front of the boat," she said.

The two weighed the fish on a digital scale, and were shocked at the result: the beast, according to their unit, weighed between 39 and 40 pounds. And it was long enough that when they went to stash it in their three-foot cooler, the fish didn't fit lengthwise-its nose and tail fin were pressed up against the sides.

Mr. Vendramin was aware that the Ontario record for largest rainbow trout was in the 29-pound range (29.12 pounds, to be exact), so he knew that, even if the scale in their boat was a hair off, the two had a provincial record-breaker on their hands, by a 10-pound margin no less.

In order to submit a catch to the Ontario Fish Registry, however, an angler is required to have the weight of the fish independently verified by an official agency. So the Vendramins winched their boat onto its trailer, stuffed the (40-pounds-heavier) cooler in the back of their car, and zipped off to-where else?-the post office in Little Current.

They hadn't been there long before news of the catch began circulating up and down the main drag. A police officer tipped off the Expositor, then rounded up a couple of skeptical colleagues so that they could see the creature with their own eyes.

By the time the Expositor arrived on the scene, the Vendramins still had their lunker in the back of their vehicle. Mr. Vendramin was in the post office, finding out if it was okay to weigh the fish on one of the Canada Post scales, while Ms. Vendramin remained outside, presumably guarding the goods.

She happily cracked open the cooler, however, to show off the impossibly-big fish to the inquisitive reporter, who still hadn't quite gotten over his chance meeting with a famous pig the previous week. But this was even more unusual. "Wow," he said.

Mr. Vendramin emerged from the post office with his thumbs up. Apparently the post office staff didn't mind pushing aside a few parcels in the interest of verifying a record catch. The Vendramins grabbed an end of the cooler each, and lugged it across the sidewalk, with the reporter happily tagging along and holding the doors open for them. How often did one get to witness a massive fish being weighed in a post office?

Postmistress Kirt McIvor had already checked with her superiors to make sure that fish-weighing didn't breach post office protocol, but she checked with them again about the appropriateness of having a reporter present, and word came back that the press would be permitted to document the unusual event.

So it was off to the scales, with the Vendramins still toting their heavy cooler, Ms. McIvor guiding them to the appropriate table in the back, and the reporter gleefully testing the flash on his camera. A few other post office employees gathered around, curious to see what was going to come out of the rectangular box.

Mr. Vendramin lifted the lid, and Ms. McIvor took a step back. "Jaws!" she exclaimed.

A clear plastic garbage bag was produced, in order to protect the post office equipment from various fish excretions, and the Vendramins swung their slimy monster over to the scale in a sagging, hammock-like sling.

The fish comically overhung the scale by several feet, and it was difficult to get a clear reading, since the Vendramins had to hold the ends of the fish up off the table. A solution was found in placing the fish in a plastic box (a 'lettertainer,' in post office speak), and then subtracting its weight, as well as the weight of the plastic bag (every ounce counts, you know), from the result.

All present anxiously awaited the final calculation, which was (brace yourself): 40.68 pounds. More than 10 pounds heavier than the Ontario record. And-unbeknownst to the Vendramins at the time-more than five pounds heavier than the Canadian record for rainbow trout.

In other words, presuming the appropriate registries accept the results, this fish, caught in nearby waters, is the largest rainbow ever known to have been hauled ashore in Canada.

Its length, according to a measuring tape provided by the post office, was a stunning 39 inches, although the Vendramins had already figured as much from having the fish outstretch their 36-inch cooler.

But it is weight, not length, that is the determining factor in a record catch. And if the post office-verified weight stands up, the Vendramins will certainly own the Canadian record for rainbows. The existing record is for a 35.12-pound rainbow that was caught in BC waters in 1976.

As for a world record, that still belongs to a heftier cousin, a 42-pounder caught in Alaska in 1970.

But local fisheries experts are still amazed at the heft of the Vendramins' catch, to the point that Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) personnel intercepted the anglers as they passed through Espanola on their way home on Wednesday, and 'seized' the specimen in order to study it.

Ms. Vendramin explained that, while the couple was stalled in construction near Whitefish Falls, "a ministry truck and boat were a couple of vehicles ahead of us, so Bruce went to talk to them and told them if they wanted to see the fish to pull over and we'd stop and show them."

Brendan O'Farrell, a fisheries research technician with the MNR specializing in salmon and steelhead, heard about the unusual catch through his colleagues, and met the Vendramins at the Espanola mall to check it out himself. "I quite honestly didn't believe it when I first heard what they were saying," Mr. O'Farrell noted.

When he set his eyes on the massive trout, he did a doubletake because of the size, but there was no question in his mind that it was a rainbow. "I see thousands of rainbows a year, and it's definitely a rainbow," he said.

The MNR is currently analyzing the fish, and Mr. O'Farrell said they will have a good estimate of its age based on scale samples that will be available this week. The fisheries specialist said, however, that the most accurate indication of age comes from studying calcium deposits in the brain, and an autopsy won't be done for a couple of weeks.

Asked whether it was unusual for a Lake Huron rainbow to approach the size of an Alaskan world record holder, Mr. O'Farrell said, "It would stand to reason that the bigger the pond, the bigger the fish. But there are so many environmental factors that can determine growth, including the warmth of the water, which can result in more food availability."

It's certainly the largest rainbow Mr. O'Farrell has ever seen. "In the Great Lakes, a typical size for a rainbow is between six and eight pounds," he said. "Ten to 14 pounds is common, but anything over that is really uncommon."

As to whether the fish is wild or an escapee from an acquaculture operation, Mr. O'Farrell said "there is absolutely no positive way of telling without doing serious genetic DNA work. Samples have been sent out, but we won't know for a couple of months."

If the fish does turn out to be a domestic farmed fish, "it won't affect whether it's a record," he noted, adding that "there are domestic genetics in all wild fish, because fish have been raised in hatcheries and placed in Lake Huron for decades."

The MNR will continue to study the Vendramins' rainbow. "The owner may or may not receive it back," said Mr. O'Farrell. "It may be that they receive an acrylic mount, and the rest will go to science."

[RAUMASTER]

I can remember about 15 years ago there was talk of a project in Owen Sound with triploid's ,I guess they riase the temp of the eggs in the hatchery to make thenm that way?? The thought was to have some Nooks in the 80 lb range..Never really heard any more on it???

[Tom Chopin]

It's a hog no matter how you look at it!!

[Guest bigfishbass]

man o man... that is a huge fish.... !