Dang palaminos

I personally find no fault with them. Children and many adults enjoy seeing them swimming around. They are usually stocked along with other stocked fish, which in Pennsylvania, are put there by the Fish Commission to be taken home and eaten or released back into the water.
 
I must admit that I give each one I encounter a few minutes of my time. And like others have mentioned they like to hold with other stockies that you can’t see. Once the gold ones spook they do a rapid circling of the pool which always makes me laugh.
WV loves to stock them and even devotes a 2 week period to their “gold rush” week. Most that I have caught have been on a dry royal coachman. Seems kind of fitting to me.
 
Cougarbaby said:
Maybe if I accidentally hook one later in the summer it'll get smoked,I fowl hooked a big 20+ inch wild brown and it probably died ,after that I carry a cooler and ice incase it happens again,can't see wasting the thing,the dang thing inhaled a micro dungeon down into its throat ,gills bleeding the whole nine yards,felt bad
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I doubt very much any of those make it to summer. They have zero camouflage. If the peeps don't get em the predators will.
 
When I was growing up, before I was a fly fisherman and wild trout enthusiast, me and my buddies always thought the Pally's were the absolute pinnacle of trout fishing! But I was never able to catch one.

Last week, I came up on a hole with no other fisherman (along a section of Class A water, mind you) and saw the yellow school bus profile in probably 5 feet of water (these things really don't stand a chance), and started fishing around it, hoping to grab the other fish likely to be near. Well, the thing moved over about 5 feet to grab my nymph, and the fight was on! It was a decent size, 20" or more, but the whole ordeal felt like I hooked into a grocery bag. The thing didn't make a single run, and just accepted its fate all the way to my net. It's the biggest trout I have ever caught, and I'm sure my younger self would be proud, but I get a lot more satisfaction catching a 14" wild brownie or 8" brookie. Anyway, there's my palomino story.
 
IMG_3537.jpeg
IMG_3537.jpeg
 
FollowTheBlueLines said:
When I was growing up, before I was a fly fisherman and wild trout enthusiast, me and my buddies always thought the Pally's were the absolute pinnacle of trout fishing! But I was never able to catch one.

Last week, I came up on a hole with no other fisherman (along a section of Class A water, mind you) and saw the yellow school bus profile in probably 5 feet of water (these things really don't stand a chance), and started fishing around it, hoping to grab the other fish likely to be near. Well, the thing moved over about 5 feet to grab my nymph, and the fight was on! It was a decent size, 20" or more, but the whole ordeal felt like I hooked into a grocery bag. The thing didn't make a single run, and just accepted its fate all the way to my net. It's the biggest trout I have ever caught, and I'm sure my younger self would be proud, but I get a lot more satisfaction catching a 14" wild brownie or 8" brookie. Anyway, there's my palomino story.
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Come on……. No way you were fishing the palomino like it was a piece of fish holding structure. Don’t become so self absorbed in the whole wild trout thing that you can’t admit to casting to a palomino.
 
I have a preference for wild trout fishing, but limited opportunity near my home - so I gladly fish the stocked trout waters nearby. I enjoy the challenge aspect of trying to catch a golden rainbow, knowing how many lures/flies it has seen. Last season, I spent a couple consecutive evenings specifically trying to catch one. I found 3 in roughly 1/2 mile of stream. Two were hunkered together in the most popular trailside deep hole, and one was 100yds downstream, holding below a bridge piling shelf and periodically moving into the main current.

I set up to target the bridge fish, and caught 9 rainbows without a look from the golden. It was like it had an army of minions sacrificing themselves. Once I had depleted the rainbow reserves, I was able to see the golden shifting positions to inspect my fly, but wouldn’t commit. Eventually, just as the sun was going down over the trees and I was preparing to head home, a size down to 6x tippet and a muskrat style nymph got it done. Surprisingly the fight was great - 2 surging runs, and multiple jumps out of the water (and no, it wasn’t fouled).

I brought the fish in and it all but filled up my net. I was feeling like King Arthur having just pulled the sword from the stone. As I’m walking up the trail basking in my victory, I come upon the main hole and see two anglers, doubled up. One of them is whooping and hollering and grabs hold of a small yellow trout. The other is deep in concentration and follows his quarry downstream, eventually lunging with his net and capturing the second, larger golden rainbow that I had spied in the pool earlier.

It was surreal - seeing them doubled up on the only two, notoriously picky goldens, in this pool, no more than 2 minutes after I had landed mine.

It was as if something had triggered them all to eat at once. Government fish, controlled by microchip? “Twilight” zone? All jokes aside, I’m 100% serious that this happened. Unbelievable odds.. and stopped me feeling special in short order.
 

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rustbeltwilds said:
Yeah i prob would do the same
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nd1001 said:
I have a preference for wild trout fishing, but limited opportunity near my home - so I gladly fish the stocked trout waters nearby. I enjoy the challenge aspect of trying to catch a golden rainbow, knowing how many lures/flies it has seen. Last season, I spent a couple consecutive evenings specifically trying to catch one. I found 3 in roughly 1/2 mile of stream. Two were hunkered together in the most popular trailside deep hole, and one was 100yds downstream, holding below a bridge piling shelf and periodically moving into the main current.

I set up to target the bridge fish, and caught 9 rainbows without a look from the golden. It was like it had an army of minions sacrificing themselves. Once I had depleted the rainbow reserves, I was able to see the golden shifting positions to inspect my fly, but wouldn’t commit. Eventually, just as the sun was going down over the trees and I was preparing to head home, a size down to 6x tippet and a muskrat style nymph got it done. Surprisingly the fight was great - 2 surging runs, and multiple jumps out of the water (and no, it wasn’t fouled).

I brought the fish in and it all but filled up my net. I was feeling like King Arthur having just pulled the sword from the stone. As I’m walking up the trail basking in my victory, I come upon the main hole and see two anglers, doubled up. One of them is whooping and hollering and grabs hold of a small yellow trout. The other is deep in concentration and follows his quarry downstream, eventually lunging with his net and capturing the second, larger golden rainbow that I had spied in the pool earlier.

It was surreal - seeing them doubled up on the only two, notoriously picky goldens, in this pool, no more than 2 minutes after I had landed mine.

It was as if something had triggered them all to eat at once. Government fish, controlled by microchip? “Twilight” zone? All jokes aside, I’m 100% serious that this happened. Unbelievable odds.. and stopped me feeling special in short order.
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Great colors
 
poopdeck said:
Come on……. No way you were fishing the palomino like it was a piece of fish holding structure. Don’t become so self absorbed in the whole wild trout thing that you can’t admit to casting to a palomino.
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I'm not sure why it's unbelievable that I was not actively casting to the palomino... Maybe I have been brainwashed by the wild trout crowd, but I really just don't enjoy the experience of catching stockers. They're (mostly) dull colored, unnaturally shaped fish that make the experience feel manufactured to me. I don't have anything against anyone who likes to catch them, but I just don't get that much satisfaction from it.
 
FollowTheBlueLines said:
I'm not sure why it's unbelievable that I was not actively casting to the palomino... Maybe I have been brainwashed by the wild trout crowd, but I really just don't enjoy the experience of catching stockers. They're (mostly) dull colored, unnaturally shaped fish that make the experience feel manufactured to me. I don't have anything against anyone who likes to catch them, but I just don't get that much satisfaction from it.
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Sorry to hear that. I enjoy every fish I catch.
 
jifigz said:
What causes the fish to sometimes grow in these weird shapes?
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General response regarding deformities in cultured trout; it’s not a reference to the specific picture above.

Pinched tail occurring during handling in the cultural processes at very young age; coldwater disease of RT; other deformities may be caused by whirling disease.
 
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This fish was stocked from the hatchery from where i worked. They were quite common mostly noticed on the trout lodge rainbows in particilar.
 
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