Giant palimino

rustbeltwilds said:
We stocked several large golden rainbows in the allegheney in coudy ....one was there i believe 3 yrs later ..so they can holdover long term sometimes when luck and conditions allow
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They must taste like Spotted Lanternfly to predators to be able to live that long unmolested...
 
Nice, that is a beautiful fish and should be proud of it. I have only ever caught a few goldens so I guess what I am saying is that I am jealous.
 
Great fish, congratulations. I get to target them from time to time on the Yough. This fish was about 22". Couldn't get a decent photo midstream as it was too big to one hand.
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I typically don't target them when I encounter one because the success scoreboard reads:

PALOMINOS - 45+
BAMBOOZLE - 3

The 3 happened a zillion years ago one Opening Day when I was in high school on Unami Creek the season before I began fly fishing. My buddy who drove me there was a fly fisherman and later became my mentor, however this outing I was wielding my trusty Eagle Claw Trailmaster & Mitchell 408 reel.

I was probably fishing salmon eggs and throwing a spinner or two, but as was typical on Opening Day in those years, I wasn’t having much luck. Later, I came upon a typical Opening Day scene; a bunch of guys throwing the kitchen sink at a couple of Palominos swimming around in a deep hole.

I watched for awhile, studying what the other guys were using... unsuccessfully. I pulled my trusty double-sided Plano compartment box from my vest which contained my terminal tackle as well as some small lures. I was looking for something different when my eyes glimpsed some marabou crappie jigs I used at a local reservoir.

I knotted a small yellow one to my ultralight rig; cast, gave it some twitches to get the marabou working and proceeded to catch those three Palominos and three other trout!!! Of course this riled up the masses who descended on me targeting the fish I released while trying to figure out what I was using.

Being a smart a$$ kid, I hid my jig and wouldn’t tell anyone what I was using, but marabou crappie jigs became a staple in my spin fishing trout arsenal, to this day...

Maybe a yellow Woolley Bugger would be the ticket on a fly rod..? 😉
 
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Bamboozle said:
I typically don't target them when I encounter one because the success scoreboard reads:

PALOMINOS - 45+
BAMBOOZLE - 3

The 3 happened a zillion years ago one Opening Day when I was in high school on Unami Creek the season before I began fly fishing. My buddy who drove me there was a fly fisherman and later became my mentor, however this outing I was wielding my trusty Eagle Claw Trailmaster & Mitchell 408 reel.

I was probably fishing salmon eggs and throwing a spinner or two, but as was typical on Opening Day in those years, I wasn’t having much luck. Later, I came upon a typical Opening Day scene; a bunch of guys throwing the kitchen sink at a couple of Palominos swimming around in a deep hole.

I watched for awhile, studying what the other guys were using... unsuccessfully. I pulled my trusty double-sided Plano compartment box from my vest which contained my terminal tackle as well as some small lures. I was looking for something different when my eyes glimpsed some marabou crappie jigs I used at a local reservoir.

I knotted a small yellow one to my ultralight rig; cast, gave it some twitches to get the marabou working and proceeded to catch those three Palominos and three other trout!!! Of course this riled up the masses who descended on me targeting the fish I released while trying to figure out what I was using.

Being a smart a$$ kid, I hid my jig and wouldn’t tell anyone what I was using, but marabou crappie jigs became a staple in my spin fishing trout arsenal, to this day...

Maybe a yellow Woolley Bugger would be the ticket on a fly rod..? 😉
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The scenes you are describing is what I thought trout fishing in Pennsylvania was untill about 4 years ago. We fished corn exclusively. then I found cooler things to do when I hit my teens. Once I hit my 30s I found out about smallmouth bass and wild trout and now I have problems.

My only 2 palomino’s came in a proper fashion. One was dumped right out of a stocking truck at my feet and the other the day after a fishing rodeo in a stretch of stream that seemed to have a hundred if not more trout.
 
Firstly, Awesome fish!

The number of stocked browns or bows I have caught while harrassing a picky Palomino has to be at least 15-1 for the few goldens I've managed to land. As often as not, they've been ones I didn't see while nymphing a deep hole. Anytime I've done that I've marveled at how I couldn't see that clown fish before I hooked it.

Last year, I hooked a freshly stocked one of about 18" and decided to take it home. I bled it, soaked it in milk and pan fried it up with a lot of lemon, shallot, and butter. Tasted just fine to me.
 
Nice fish......

I managed to go 45 years without catching one of those infernal creatures, then boom one appeared out of riffle where I hadn't noticed it and ate my bugger. Oh well, worse things have happened. I released it for the heron to get.
 
Nice fish.
Popped a nice one about 25 years ago. When he was stocked he was a state record by weight. When I caught him 3 weeks later he had already dropped 3 pounds.
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If I ever catch one of those Im grabbing my Grampa Joe and heading right to a chocolate factory. I can never get them to eat lol
 
Its a West Virginia Lightning Trout - NOT A PALOMINO !
 
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