giant trout | Spineri

(photo by Danijel Šnajdar)

On 26.12.2013. I saw brown trout 91 cm long and over 11 kilos (that´s 36 inches and more than 25 lb, my friends!) caught for restocking in Lokvarsko lake in Gorski Kotar, Croatia. December 26th is St. Stephens holiday in Croatia, so we conveniently named it Steffi. I saw big fish before, but none of them made me so intrigued like Steffi did. So, after this monster fish from Lokvarsko lake I made an effort and investigated Salmo Trutta family. Internet is deficient with informations and facts regarding brown trout that lives in lakes. Some informations are misguiding, brown trout is often confused with lake char and that´s why I wrote this text.

Salmo trutta comes in 3 formes:

Salmo trutta m. fario

Salmo trutta m. lacustris

Salmo trutta m. trutta

Salmo trutta m. fario is common form of brown torut who lives in cold well oxygened streams and rivers in upper parts of Croatia. In good conditions it can reach 70-80 cm and 6-7 kilos. I was so fortunate I saw some old photos from river Una in Bosnia and Herzegovina with fishes over 1 meter long, weighting over 10 kilos. Of course fish that big are rare, those up to half a meter are much more common.

Salmo trutta m. trutta is a sea trout. It is rare in Adriatic sea, i found an information that first is caught in 1879. near Split and after that it is rarely mentioned. In cold seas of north Europe is more common.it can reach up to 1,4 meter and weight up to 20 kilos. It lives ina sea, but it spawns in rivers and when it reaches 15-20 cm, it migrates to sea. Interesting fact is that not all fish migrate to sea, but only 75% of them. When it becomes ready for spawning, sea trout comes back to the river where she hatched. When in river, she loses silver pigment and becomes brown.

Salmo trutta m. lacustris is a form of a brown trout that lives in lakes and because of it this text occurred. Lake form of a brown trout is a brown trout adapted to life in lake. Sounds stupid in english, I know. It differs from m. fario form morphologicly and it´s another phenotype. Lacustris form grows much larger than fario, for an example. Biggest recorded in Croatia was 25,5 kilos and 124 centimeters. Guess where? Well, in Lokvarsko lake, of course. It was caught in 1968., while lake was deflated due to repair of a dam.

So, when we in Croatia talk about lake trout, we don´t talk about chars. Hell, no. We talk about big browns. We talk about Salmo trutta m. lacustris. It grows much faster than m. fario, and it can reach more than 25 kilos and more than 120 centimeters. It spends all it´s life in a lake and spawns in stream mouths, or stream itself. It´s silvery fish, who after some time spent in a lake loses red dots and only black ones stay. After some time more,dots turn to irregular freckles. Ferox trout is rather similar to croatian lake trout. Oldest one recorded was 23 years old. Fish caught in 1968. In Lokvarsko lake was around 16 years. Let me remind you, she weighted over 25 kilos. Those between 10 and 25 kilos was 60 or 70. Considering that, I have no reason to doubt that Lokvarsko lake has fish around, or over 30 kilos.

Links:

http://www.npkrka.hr/buk/buk5/files/assets/seo/page14.html

http://www.lickosenjska.com/index.php/nacionalni-parkovi/plitvicka-jezera

http://www.ribe-hrvatske.com/index.php

http://www.balkan-trout.com/biblio.htm

http://www.wildtrout.org/content/about-trout

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_trout

http://hrcak.srce.hr/104837?lang=en

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/marine-environment/species/fish/freshwater/ferox

On a november 26th 2013 we decided to make a fishing trip to Mrzla Vodica lake. We were after some pike. Around 9 AM we were on dam. Rain is falling, wind is blowing, perfect conditions! Robert and I are all hyped. 6 hours later, we´re still on a dam. Fishless. We were about to give it up when our buddy Danijel called. He is coming, he and some other fellows have labor action on Lokvarsko lake. Since nothing happened in 6 hours, I ask him can we join. An hour later, everything is ready. Danijel is looking us and dead serious saying: ´Guys, today you might see something what you have never seen before and only God knows will you ever again´. Robert and I just looked at each other without saying anything. You never know with Danijel is he serious, or joking.

Next minute we are jumping off a truck, Danijel puts aggregate on his shoulders, Vanja is on ´needle´and adventure begins. Rest of us are behind two of them with buckets and landing nets. First few hundred meters current stuns small chub here and there. Then Vanja sticked a needle in a hole under the tree and giant trout showed at a surface. Suddenly, everyone is jumping and screaming! The moment when it landed in a landing net, screaming became even louder.

We caught almost 1 meter long fish in a small stream, unbelievable!

Kristijan and I fill water in a vat and put this giant fish in it. It is so big it has to be diagonally in vat. I can´t believe my eyes how big it is. It looks more as a grass carp than as a brown trout.

We caught 16 fish total and we are going to fish farm to get the eggs out. To spawn it. Mr Boro will do it, he´s been doing it for a long time now. He is separating males from females first. Then he´milks´ females, and after that males. Females are much bigger as i can see now. While he does that, guys weigh that big fish. Meter shows 91 cm, and digital scale 11,5 kg. Yeah, that´s right. 91 cm and 11,5 kg! We get it back in a pool, trout looks tired, it turns on a side if nobody9 s holding her, but half an hour later, everything is ok. It swims on it´s own. Spawning is over and now we take 6-7 beautiful males caught last weekend back to Lokvarsko lake. They did what they had to do, it´s time to release them now. One of them, around 60 cm long fish, is a really wild one! I can´t imgine what it would be like to hook him. That would be a rodeo!

While Robbie and I drive home, movie from today is spinning in my head. I keep thinking about Danijel´s words…
We saw something we have never seen before and it´s a big question will we ever again.

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PS It´s a first time in my life I gave name to a fish. I named it Steffi. If you ever come to Lokvarsko lake, or any lake with trouts that size, and if you´re so lucky to catch a trout as big as Steffi, pay her respect. That are old ladies. They are grannies and great-grannies, so be nice. Handle it with great care, take a few photos and release it. They deserve it.