Since I'm tagged out on archery season all I can do now is fish until rifle season starts. So I drove to Rockbridge Trout Ranch to try and find some nice big rainbows. I caught 2 more real nice rainbow trout the 1'st one was 6.92 lbs. he attacked a Ozark trout worm pink & white. He jumped out of the water 4 X's around 3 foot each time.


And the second one was 6.43 lbs. I caught this one on a Custom made 3" rubber crawdad brown & pale orange. This one take off down stream after I set the hook. I had to follow him quite a ways down stream and really working to keep him from trying to go under a log and another tree in the water.


Both fish put up an incredible fight for about 10 minutes each before I was able to net them. I like to walk the river looking for big fish and then will target that fish only. Sometime it takes 7 - 10 different lures or jigs and an hour or so before you might get one to bite. Rockbridge trout ranch is an awesome place to catch big trout, the average trout is 2 - 2 1/2 lbs. but if you take your time and walk the river you can find bigger trout for sure. There were 5 other big trout that wouldn't bite anything that I threw at them. I also lost a bigger trout maybe 8 1/2 lbs. that went under a big log and broke me off and never could locate again. It's always a great time at Rockbridge.

Those are pretty! Nice photos

Nice fish!

Nice Bows for sure !!

I whack bows and salmon with this fly

Do you tie those yourself?

Couple of good ones.

I am good friends with a commercial Fly tier...

I see 2 good ones behind you in the first pic.

Yep that's my stringer your seeing.

Those are some gooduns

That looks like a lot of fun.
Jim

Some good food!

looks like a good day,

I see the tails are clipped. And "Trout Ranch" sounds like a hatchery-type set-up? I am not familiar with a Trout Ranch. Is it private water, on a river? Do they privately stock the water you fish?
Just curious. I am familiar with trout stocking by State agencies out west.

From their website, it's $35.00 a day to fish, plus $5.95 per pound for the fish you catch. You're not allowed to release any fish and have to pay a $35.00 a day fine if you are caught doing so. If you don't want to keep fish, it's $210.00 a day. They clean all the fish for you. They hatch 200,000 trout a year. That's definitely not a bad price to pay for fresh trout, especially with the experience. It looks like a beautiful place.

The largest indoor trout farm is in Urbanna, Ohio near me. They charge $12.99 a pound for live trout that size. The owner is a great guy. He does a lot for our community. He's worked hard to create a great park with good fishing. He's bought a lot of plants from me this year, on 3 separate occasions. He's been trying to get bobwhite quail and ringneck pheasants established on his land and the adjoining park, that he's built pretty nice habitat on. The park is only open on weekends this time of year, but he will let me have the key for the gate to fish there.

Keith

LMAO ...so basically it's fishing in a barrel for wannabe fisherman....

Or Deer hunting inside a tall fenced in property

They had one of those places around here ...years ago.

They charged by the inch.

I brought my Down Syndrome brother there...and he had a blast !!

Best 200.00 I evah spent.

The place Big Buck fished looks like a natural stream. It's probably not significantly different fishing there than fishing in waters stocked with trout, by state DNRs all over the US. I would guess the trout that survive there for a while get pretty wary, just like other stocked fish.

There's no fishing at the trout farm by me. They charge $12.99 a pound for large live trout for stocking or eating. They sell cleaned, trout, smoked trout, trout dips and lots of other types of seafood. There's no trout in the park next door. There's some nice flatheads, channel cats, bluegill and bass.

The park by me has a blue hole, with 8000 plus gallons coming out of the ground per minute. The water is crystak clear and the blueness further out reminds you of the Caribbean.

Keith