Cutbow Trout

I finally cought my first species of trout this evening, it put up a good fight and made me a happy man

Slid the kayak down the snowy shore and got out for a few hours this afternoon. Hadn’t been on the home lake in a bit. Air temp was 35F with a few flurries and water surface temp was 47F. Baitfish are consolidating. Found a few bigger fish, still fairly deep. Landed a couple of nice 23” cutbows, and one smaller rainbow. That’s at least the 18th CO master angler qualifying trout I’ve caught on the home lake this year (plus at least 3 MA walleye and a handful of MA bass. Not bragging, just keeping track here for myself since I’m not submitting them).

Took my 7-year-old out for a Sunday afternoon session in the double kayak in our backyard after church. I was jigging while she was drifting. I caught a couple nice smallmouths, and then a very nice 25” cutbow. It was a stout fish; no exaggeration to say it was probably an 8 pounder. I’ve caught a handful of cutbows around 25”, but I’d say this was the heaviest among those, so I’ll call it a PB! I did measure it but didn’t bother getting a picture on the tape, as I’ve caught so many master angler qualifying fish this year, I’m not turning them in unless it’s something extra special. And in this case, I feel it’s just a matter of time until I get a 27+ inch cutbow to make all the quarter inch differences a moot point. After the trout, I let my daughter drift both rods, to give her a better chance of a catch, but for whatever reason the bite cooled off (perhaps rapidly changing weather conditions). I was proud of her for keeping a good attitude and enjoying the trip in spite of not reeling in any today. She gets credit for holding the phone on my selfies, and also knows she usually catches more than me on our shared outings.

Very nice Cutbow out of the river in the mid afternoon.

Kept and ate some lakeside nice sized eaters. Tons of stockers , must have stocked up recently.

Casted the cricket crank bait right under a good shaded tree and the trout snatched it right up.

#CatchKing this one I was blindly casting and then he hit it hard this cricket crank bait is my new favorite bait for trout now.