Well no one has mentioned it yet, but in case you hadnt heard, or just dont care, SARL produced a 24.09 trout this past Tuesday. I applaud the guy, Bernard, who caught he big-un. Regardless of your personal feelings about whether it should be a record or not, its still a nice fish to have you pictured with. I am wondering what other people, like myself, who fish think of this. Am I way off base with my thoughts of it?

Now heres what I find a little odd or fishy, with maybe a pun intended here. I give the owners of SARL an A+ for their business savy with this one. The trout was caught on tuesday in Chris's pond, the little lake in the back of the facility. It was closed off for the day for something with which their email called a "Crave party." Now Im sure that most of us tried crave and were disappointed with it. Well apparently, they pulled the old stuff off the shelves and re-released the stuff with some improvements. Now its funny that the owners of SARL, who are in a way connected to Crave, have a special promotion to catch a "state record." The promo was that you had to fish with only crave on the pond in order to fish there. So all the fish caught that day, included the 24 lber had to be caught on Crave. I didnt think anything of this, until I read that the guy had bought a one day fishing license before coming to this, just so that he could be recognized by the DFG.

Now it is still a great accomplishment to land a monster of 24 pounds on prolly some 4 pound test. I am not taking anything away from the fish. Just the circumstances. Re-release of a new bait, a private crave party, a one day license to fish at a pay lake, and a state record fish to make all the papers.

My Dad & I were talking about this tonight when he came over. We both came to the same conclusion. We would have loved to get the record, but we would have felt a little funny about it. I know it wasnt caught in their Huckleberry pond, but it almost seemed like it was a setup. I definitely give them my highest regard concerning the promotion of their business. If I was re-releasing a product, their would be no better way than to kick it off with a state record fish caught on my new bait. Kudos to them for this. Im sure that it will increase the business and make the shorelines a little more crowded. I will still fish there my regular allotment of times, I guess I just think maybe they tried to hard for some record and promo.

Anyone have thoughts?
Mike

I don't think the fish should be counted as a state record, because it was probably fed enough food to break the old lake record. Next year, they'll feed another one of their trouts just a little more food. Hahahah... It is a business, and SARL is sure making money!! Hehehe.. Just my opinion..

Mo

i hate sarl

I second that.......it's damn mud hole.

SARL is a lake that has produced some of the biggest trout in California. Though I think their tactics to produce a huge trout, and probably some of the best fishing on a day prior to the event is unfair to individuals who are not on the "in crowd" list with SARL. Many of the individuals you see on the webcam are the same people who catch lloyds. Why, becuase they are tipped off where to fish, and when. I catch my share of big fish myself, but when you are tipped off, it just gives that person a better chance of catching 2+ lloyds that day. To even up the score, can sarl play fair for everyone and stock on the day they say they are? We can only hope so. Otherwise, for the anglers not in the "in crowd" or the Crave crew, we will have to fish everyday to find the right day to catch lloyds like the ones we see on the webcam.
Words of wisdom: Don't believe everything you see!

I think the triploid fish should be a seperate catagory from the non-triploid rainbows. Props to the guy that caught that fish, but when I saw it in the paper I didn't even bother to read the article, to me personally it just doesn't matter. Hearing about a guy catching a 10 pound brown or a big steelhead, that is pretty cool.

I LOVE SARL! It gives me the opportunity to hookup with a big fish with a light line and have a good fight. I love the opportunity to catch a fish and check for a tag and win something. I love the opportunity to get a limit and they are bigger than the-three or four-to-a pound DFG stockers. I love the kick-back fishing I can do there if I choose to. Or work a lure or mini-jig all day long if I feel like it. I love not having to drive more than 30 minutes or having to get on an airplane to do this. I have fished in Europe, Alaska, the Florida Keys, Ensenada, Midriff Islands and the Eastcape and I still love SARL. I don't work for the SARL people or anyone like that, but I love America where the Elliots can have an opportunity to make money and provide people an opportunity to have a good time. On March 16th some friends and I are going to have an opportunity to fish, bbq and enjoy each others company at SARL. I am looking forward to it. If you don't like (or even hate SARL) be thankful for the opportunity not to HAVE to fish there. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to sound off on this board, especially since I do not have the opportunity to check my favorite Fishing Hotpage. Peace.

With all due respect to everyone here, here is my perspective.

I can validate the differences people have on how they FEEL about fisheries like SARL which is essentially a synthetic fishery both in terms of environment as well as quarry. Some love it, some hate it with all degrees in between.

However, I can passionately take a stance on the issue of gamefish records coming out of these types of fisheries...In short, I don't believe fish caught in such circumstances should be considered for records. Do triploid fish occur in nature? Of course they do. But not in vast numbers. In addition, these fish have been selectively bred to be as such and in the process they are culled to produce large fish in numbers that do not naturally occur with such frequency even with the triploid mutation...And when it comes to fish like the thunder and lightning trout, I don't think it should even be a question...

Stocking in natural habitat with fish that can reproduce is one thing...Engineered trout? I dunno.

Again, I seperate the value of such fisheries and the issue of records coming from them.

Respectfully,
Mike Chung

Here's the way I see it.

Lakes like SARL are basically amusement parks. Not all of us can be or have the desire to be race car drivers, skydivers, hang gliders, etc. so we go to amusement parks and pay for a thrill.

The same with those "big fish" lakes. Not all people can catch or have the desire or ambition to do what it takes to catch big fish like that so they pay for the thrill.

Counted as records - my vote is no. Would you expect to get some kind of record for riding some roller coaster? I know it's a poor analogy but you can see my point.

Actually there are records for riding roller coasters....

I've never been to SARL, but I LOVE it. Last time I drove by, there must have been 300 people on the bank. That's 300 less people fishing the real lakes.

I've fished there a hand full of times, and have come to the conclusion that fishing for samll wild rainbows out of Creeks is a lot more fun then fishing that lake. I would like to float tube it once though since I just got my tube it looked calm enough to practice launching and moving around on

I should open a "amusement park" called lake, I would make a mint and be able to fish every lake everyday with 300 anglers paying 16 bucks a permit!

As long as people keep the controversy up,SARL will come out ahead. The more p.r. they get for things like this,the more people go to find out. As for the record, the DFG made the rules that you have to have a fishing liscence and if that's all it takes - well then you got yourself a record. The whole stocking thing does have a point but they would argue that all species have been stocked in Calif. The only native fish out here are extinct or the golden trout that in the high elevation lakes. Oh and the steelhead we almost wiped out. Did you know that the Santa Ana River had one of the largest steelhead runs in Calif at one time ? Then we re-routed the river for irrigation and housing purposes, pretty stupid huh ? After the first flood when the river was re-routed we put in the prado dam. Could you imagine the people lined up on the Santa Ana River to catch "REAL" fish that smoke you when hooked ? Now that I would pay to fish. Now a 20 lb loid from Lassen is cool and all for Orange County Anglers but I cannot stress how much better fishing is in Canada. Hey do it if you can and if you can't afford it - save up those wasted SARL dollars and go. You only live once and believe me, it is getting developed just as our area has. FYFI - for you fishing information.

For those who doubted that SARL stacked the deck heavly in their favor of pulling a record fish that day. A new record fish has been pulled form the lake. 26.04 I think.

Wonder how many more fish are in that lake over the current record? Hell I'd go so far as to say these fish are geneticly altered to eat only crave bait too.

Now I complete disagree with this on a logical stand point, but on a amrketing standpoint this is brillant. Look at all the promotion that Crave and SARL will get out of this. Ah well with march coming up Bass season starts again....And I'll go back to getting skunked everytime out (hopefully I've learned something and will do better this year)