Now that the "state record" mutant Rainbow Trout was withdrawn from consideration the Santa Ana River Lakes have started speaking out. What a joke! First of all they have a poll asking whether stocked trout should be considered for records or not and then post a bunch of crap about how they won by a landslide. Do they really think we are that stupid? The question is not "should stocked trout be considered for records" but "should genetically altered mutant trout be considered for records". These are completely different fish and should not be lumped in with natural trout (stocked or wild). They can't even reproduce on their own for God's sake.

And when the hell did this polling take place. I just read about it yesterday in W.O.N. and the polls are already closed with only 379 votes! That in itself is a joke!

Here are a couple of places to write to if you want to vent:

Santa Ana River Lakes
info@fishinglakes.com

Dave Strege, the Outdoor Writer for the Orange County Register.
dstrege@notes.freedom.com

I didn't know they withdrew it from being eligible. That really is a tough issue. Because I'm not a core trout fisherman, I think I'm biased. I know we've discussed this on the board a number of times. I think I personally lean toward letting the record stand.

Can anyone clear up one detail for me? Was that fish from a recent stocking, or did the guy just get a rogue fish that happened to be in a Santa Ana lake.

Really tough issue. I'd vote to let the record stand. What if a fly fisherman caught that fish on a wooly bugger, stripping it around that Santa Ana lake on some Sat. afternoon for practice. I just sense a bit of biase towards the fish because of all the circumstances. Santa Ana River Lakes, like Irvine lake, is "Home of the SuperFish". Places like that keep meat fisherman away from the wild trout waters. It's also a good place to take a kid or a newbie fishing. He caught it on bait, and not a lure. So what? Bob Crupi caught a 22lb bass on a crawdad and no one thought he was a hack for using bait...

Whatever, sorry to beat a dead horse.

Apparently the fish was only planted a couple days before it was caught.

The problem I have is not wheather the fish are stocked or not rather that the fish are genetically altered to grow that size. Because of this I feel they are no longer "Rainbow Trout" and should be treated as a different fish. I don't disagree with letting it be a record I just feel they should create a separate category for genetically altered fish.

By the way the DFG didn't withdraw the record - the angler did.

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Thanks for clearing that up. That is real interesting that the anlger withdrew from the record! Wow.

Yes, genetically altered fish maybe should be in a separate category...Tough one.

It may be that some pertinent info has not been included in this exchange. This potential record "catch" was illusory from jumpstreet, due to an unnamed eyewitness who reported seeing this angler net the herculean trout lying in a vegetative state in the shallows. In light of this spurious claim, the angler withdrew his bid for the record, in an effort to spare his family impending litigation. Notwithstanding this controversy, I think that it may be myopic to lambast farm raised fish. Note the example of Texas F&G, who have instituted a subsidized statewide policy that gives fisherman financial incentive to return lunkers to hatcheries, that they may be bred with other hogs in an attempt to create a genetic bottleneck effect of producing large offspring. Now if SARL gets hatchery fish that are transgenically modified using some type of vector as opposed to promoting good old fashioned mating between two lloyds, then I'd have a serious problem with that. But they are a private enterprise and probably do not fall under the FDA provision for genetic labeling of food, drugs, or cosmetics anyway. I doubt very seriously that the SoCal anglers have any problem with catching such lloyds down there. The locals love that darn place!
Me, I'm actually kind of jealous. They stopped planting the reserviors of the South SF Bay area. Most of the time I get skunked at bass or go to one of the pay lakes in the East Bay, like Del Valle, where I wish they had some SARL type lunkers.


for more info on SARL and the locals, check out fishinghotpage.com.

Ahhhh SoCal . . .

Like a complete dork, I forgot that there was a posting of that OC register article in the freshwater forum. My badness . . .