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This little guy believe it or not, was one of the most difficult fish I ever targeted.
One night I got a call from a fishing buddy of mine telling me that one of the ponds we fish had been stocked and he also
mentioned that he saw a few gold trout swimming around. I believed him about the pond being stocked but took his report of
golden trout swimming around lightly. He was fairly new to fishing. He was a hunting buddy of mine who wanted to learn how
to fish, He was new to the sport, so I had taken him under my wing and was fishing with him often. At that time he could not
tell one different species of trout from another. Mass wildlife also does not stock gold trout so I dismissed his claims and
assumed he had seen some brown trout. I decided the next day to hit that pond with my friend. I pulled up to the bank of the
pond and in no time my buddy had pointed out the fish in which I had no problem spotting. They were were indeed a couple of
gold (palomino/) trout swimming around and they stuck out like a sore thumb.
I immediately thought to myself how did those get in here. I had never caught one and realized this was a rare opportunity
to do so. I had made it my mission to cross this trout of my list and completely ignored fishing for the regular rainbow trout
that the pond had been heavily stocked with. Just two problems, one my buddy and half the anglers at the pond were also gunning
for the same fish and two, these golden trout would not hit anything. I tried all the usual hardware and natural baits. I
through everything at this fish (kitchen sink and all). I would leave the pond in disgust. Never had I been worked up over
such a small fish before. Between lines getting tangled over this one fish and the fish being extremely spooky. I decided
they were not going to hit, I would come back the next day with some live bait and increase my odds. I'll hook it when it
isn't so spooky and a bit more hungry. I'll catch one for sure tomorrow.
yeah right, so I thought. Day in and day out this fish would not hit anything. On one of those days I noticed one of the
Golden's had disappeared, either caught or hung low in cover not to be seen or perhaps a bird of prey made a meal out of it.
Regardless my odds just dropped. The remaining single fish would come to my bait look at it and sniff it and still turn it's
nose away.
It got personal now and I had developed a vendetta out for this small irritating fish. About 3-4 times each week I would
pop by the pond for a bit and attempt yet again to catch this thing. Finally one day, my wife decided to join me. While we
would fish I was not expecting her to also ignore the other fish and compete for the same palomino (real sweet of her after
I told her how I needed to catch this damn fish). She was completely in the way but eventually gave up and moved on toward
casting for some regular rainbows. I continued to cast my little ultra light rod with a fresh garden worm I dug by the pond.
Here came the golden to investigate, I thought for sure as usual she would look at the bait and turn away but this time she
inhaled it and I set the hook on her, after playing her out and some head shakes I felt relieved as I plucked her out of the
water. I felt like a big rock had been lifted from my shoulders. It took me three weeks to catch her.
I also realized after examining her that she had a bad eye and was probably blind on one side. Which would also help partly
to explain why she was so difficult to catch. The pictures don't do it justice but I thought it was the coolest looking trout
ever. I wish Mass would stock these fish. Anyway it turned out after talking to some of the other fishermen at the pond. There
was a derby and a separate and private hatchery had stocked a few gold trout as well as a handful of some larger 2-3 pound
rainbows as the prize fish for the derby. In which case I ended up catching one of those 3 pound bows while going for the
gold. I'll probably never catch another golden again unless I head to PA (who stocks them) or join a rod and gun club that
stocks them. (If anyone knows of a club that stocks some big golden's or knows where to target large ones shoot me an email).
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