33 pound brown trout on a jig

[bombora]

Absolutely Bucho, trout love a little rabbit tailed jig. All black has been my best colour by far. Good luck! 
Interesting that in the NZ article the little black jigs were still hugely appealing to giant fish.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Hi Bombora, Thanks for your great reporting -and those photos (definately worth 1000 words!). BLACK will be a big color for me this year on trout (I shoulda listened to Hawn & my son on this!!)

 

[Jig Man]

ONE MORE REASON TA GO....

 

[BucktailJiger]

Would be a fun challenge bringing one of those in

 

[st.croix.boy]

Thought jigcrafters may be interested in this.
 A local Oz fishing mag has a story about monster wild trout from a very interesting New Zealand fishery. It's a series of man mad canals for hydro power connecting several natural lakes. The trout in these canals are absolute monsters. Both browns and rainbows. All wild fish, no stocking in the lakes or canals, apart from the initial introduction decades ago. Not hatchery breeders released after their use-by date. 
The article says the reason for their huge growth is a constant year round perfect water temperature, which also creates luxurious weed beds full of food: minnows, snails and aquatic insects. They caught most of their fish in the canals, but the giants are also taken from the lakes.
One of the Aussie fishos who went there was Frank Prokop, who has being trying to switch on Down Under fishos to the effectiveness of tiny hair jigs on trout for many many years. He's the reason I started tying jigs for trout. 
Anyway his black possum hair tailed jigs were a killer in these canals.
His best, a 33 pound brown!!!!!!

The biggest these guys caught was a 37 pound brown, though it fell to a sinking minnow lure.

And here's a stud rainbow:

The bloke who wrote the story isn't a BS guy and he talks about the fish taking 150-200 yards runs, on 10 pound braid. 
This fishery has been the site of 40 pound fish.
Amazing!!!!!

Dear goodness that's a SLOB!

 

[st.croix.boy]

Thought jigcrafters may be interested in this.
 A local Oz fishing mag has a story about monster wild trout from a very interesting New Zealand fishery. It's a series of man mad canals for hydro power connecting several natural lakes. The trout in these canals are absolute monsters. Both browns and rainbows. All wild fish, no stocking in the lakes or canals, apart from the initial introduction decades ago. Not hatchery breeders released after their use-by date. 
The article says the reason for their huge growth is a constant year round perfect water temperature, which also creates luxurious weed beds full of food: minnows, snails and aquatic insects. They caught most of their fish in the canals, but the giants are also taken from the lakes.
One of the Aussie fishos who went there was Frank Prokop, who has being trying to switch on Down Under fishos to the effectiveness of tiny hair jigs on trout for many many years. He's the reason I started tying jigs for trout. 
Anyway his black possum hair tailed jigs were a killer in these canals.
His best, a 33 pound brown!!!!!!

The biggest these guys caught was a 37 pound brown, though it fell to a sinking minnow lure.

And here's a stud rainbow:

The bloke who wrote the story isn't a BS guy and he talks about the fish taking 150-200 yards runs, on 10 pound braid. 
This fishery has been the site of 40 pound fish.
Amazing!!!!!

Dear goodness that's a SLOB!

 

[hookup]

Buddy just got back from Slovenia and some of the trout pix he posted were amazing 30-40 pounds (about 15-20 kilos) size fish on a cross cut & zonker rabbit hair jig

 

[Bucho]

Any chance I get picture material for use on FB or my homepage? Large european browns taken on homemade/cottage production hairjigs would really be something, regardless who is credited with making them.