Brooke Wheeler Catches Trophy Rainbow Trout on Lake Lanier
Brooke Wheeler of Snellville and her fishing buddy, Landon Crafton, were casting underspin lures along the banks of lower Lake Lanier on Saturday, March 2, when her line hesitated slightly. She instinctively set the hook and the fight was on! As the rod doubled over and the reel drag sang, they knew it was a big fish. After a ten-minute fight that included a dance around the trolling motor to free the thin, ten-pound test line, the quarry finally came to the net. It was a trophy rainbow trout!
Brooke and Landon brought her awesome catch to the WRD Gainesville Regional Office on March 4th to have the fish certified by WRD biologists for a Georgia Angler Award. The hook-jawed male stretched the tape to 28 ½ inches and pulled the arrow of the certified scale down to the 9 pounds, 6 ounce mark. That’s certainly a trophy anywhere, and especially in north Georgia!
Biologists believe this trophy rainbow trout “relocated” to Lake Lanier as a result of winter’s high water. WRD discontinued trout stocking in Lake Lanier around 1990 as the lake naturally aged and summer oxygen levels declined. But, a few trout are still caught each year by anglers. Those fish are usually escapees from striper anglers’ hooks, or downstream migrants from Lanier’s tributaries — all designated trout waters high in the mountains. With this winter’s rains, this big fish likely took a whitewater ride down the Hooch or Chestatee and finally landed in the calmer waters of Lake Lanier. That is, until he met our young angling expert, Brooke!
Angler Award Program
Do you know about our Angler Award program? The Georgia Angler Award Program recognizes anglers in Georgia who catch exceptional fish in Georgia waters. It also allows DNR to collect information on the genetics, age, growth, and habitats of big fish to help manage our fisheries to their greatest potential.
Go fish Georgia soon. Maybe you’ll find a trophy, too. Check out last week’s fishing report before you hit the water: 3/1/19 Fishing Report.
Kent
What would the estimated age be of a trout that size?
Georgia DNR, Wildlife Resources Division
Don’t know age but a best guess is probably 6-8 yrs old. It depends on the feeding rate during the fish’s lifetime.
Shan
That doesn’t look like any rainbow trout I have ever seen. The hook on the low part of mouth indicates it is a brown trout. Did Ga. DNR claim that to be a Rainbow?
Georgia DNR, Wildlife Resources Division
This is a confirmed rainbow trout. A hook jaw isn’t indicative of species ID. All three trout species in GA will show some males that develop a kype.
Mark
That’s a steehead salmon not a rainbow!
Joe
It appears to be a rainbow steelhead for sure. I’ve seen older rainbow steelheads in hatcheries and the appearance looks to be the same. Hook jaw and all.
Clay Runck
Steelhead “salmon” and rainbow trout are both common names for the same species, Oncorhynchus mykiss, which is why biologists use “scientific names” when communicating about species. It’s a biology thing – systematics, taxonomy, classification, nomenclature.
jim harrison
Over the 15 years that I lived at Lake Lanier , I caught several stocker size rainbows. I have caught only one in the 15 years living on Hartwell, all during the winter.
Paul Baldwin
Did she release the trout?
Michael
To my knowledge, the males of all three species of trout in Georgia develop a lower hook jaw beginning with the spawning season. That trout definitely is a male rainbow and a healthy specimen at that.
Keith
Good going, Brooke! I’ve been fishing longer than you’ve lived and I never caught one that big.
Sue D.
Rod and reel or fly fishing? I sure hope thatr fish was put back into the water.
Virgil Warren
How did that trout survive all the stripers?
Scott Hunter
Sue..does it make it less of a catch if she used a spinning rod? Why are fly fishermen and women such snobs about the sport. Fishing is fishing. If she wanted to keep it, she can, it is her fish.