Fishing Forum

I have been seeing a bunch of stuff on the web about golden trout? what is the story there? i'm not sure i have ever heard about them until now. where can you find them? Josh
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There are a few high mountain lakes that have them. Most of the GT I have caught were while hiking in the Beartooth Mountains in Montana, although i caught one in the Big Horn Crags about 10 years ago. The F&G website will tell you what high mountain lakes have them. They are worth the hike! Small but really pretty.
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Are you talking about the hybrids fish and game is releasing? If so I caught several dozen last year in the ponds by the state hatchery in Hagerman. From what I understand they are a hybrid with a golden trout from California and a rainbow. They look like a rainbow but are a banana yellow color. They were donated to the state from a private hatchery. I know they are in a few ponds in the Boise area also.
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They are in the back pond at McTucker Ponds near Springfield Idaho . Curt G.
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The Golden Trout found in high mountain lakes and the Bananna Trout are two different things. The Bananna Trout are a rainbow with a genetic anomoly. These are usually planted by the fish and game. They are fun to catch especially for the kids. In nature these are usually picked off really fast because they are easy for predators to see.

The Golden Trout are a seperate species that thrive in high altitude lakes. I've caught them in the Windrivers. Both can get very big dending on what lakes they are in and the food source.

Windriver
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I heard from a buddy at work that the bannana trout or golden/rainbow are actually spawning or attempting to spawn at McTucker. He had claimed there we some there as large as 8lbs being caught. I never saw a picture but if this is the case I would love to have a albino looking trout of that size on my wall.
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Wind River is correct.

Here are some of what I would call big goldens from my last two Wind River backpacking trips.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/574290927HdBdTp

and

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/578395572HIHdeW

If you search it's pretty easy to find lakes in Idaho that have them as well as a few in Montana and obviously the Wind Rivers. Generally the lakes that have large ones have relatively few and are very isolated. They also tend to be difficult to catch compared to some other high country trout because they are often zooplanktivores and maintain deep dwelling habits.The ones I've caught are wild leftovers from stockings past but there are a few lakes in the Wind Rivers that now have large ones again that are easier to catch and access because the Wyoming F&G reinstated their golden trout stocking program in 2003.
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The golden rainbow hybrids get pretty huge indeed. I caught a monster one off the snake river here in twin. But they also have them all through buhl and hagerman. Check the profile pics.
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Wow...those are beautiful fish and the country looks amazing too. I gotta get to the wind rivers.
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Nice Dev, thanks for sharing! Isn't like 9 lb the record Golden? We have them in the Uinta's but lucky to get a 12" er.
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Just to clear things up. The bananna trout are not a golden/rainbow hybrid. They are a genetic mutation that pigments the rainbows a yellow color. It happens in the wild, but like I said they get eaten fast in the wild. When it happens in the raceways of the hatcherys the F&G takes them and puts them together by themselves and raises them until they are catchable size. Then they breed those ones together and the mutation is passed on at a greater rate making a catchable population of "banana trout." Sometimes the F & G releases their brood stock into the family fishing waters. From what I understand these are the really big ones that people are catching. Most of the banana trout do not reach huge sizes because they are caught out of the family fishing waters or killed off by osprey/eagles.

Disclaimer: Non of this is scientific just what I have heard and seen.

Windriver
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Joni,
The record is actually 11 lbs. but it's all the way from 1941 I believe.
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I have caught some in the Frank Church Wilderness area before. Nothing big though, just little guys.
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dang shane you've fished just about everywhere haven't ya? i hope that sometime this summer i can get somewhere to catch some of htem. i'd really like one.
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are they worth there weight in gold??[laugh][laugh][]
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Chuck Yeager's autobiography had a whole chapter about golden trout. He showed them to some general who fell in love with them and had them planted all over the place, with or without permission, I guess. Been a while since I read the book.
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