Discover the Largest Rainbow Trout Ever Caught in Texas

These fish go by different names and there’s an important distinction between two of those names. They vary in color and though some varieties grow much larger, rainbow trout are smaller fish due to their habitat. Discover the largest rainbow trout ever caught in Texas!

Rainbow Trout Overview

Rainbow trout go by different names, including red band trout and steelhead trout. These fish might spend their entire lives in freshwater but sometimes, they venture out into the saline waters of the ocean and later return to their freshwater environment to spawn.

Those that do make it out to the ocean are known as steelhead trout. Since rainbow trout remain in freshwater, they’re typically smaller than the fish that make it out into the ocean, weighing about eight pounds on average. When they start measuring 20 inches long, they become trophy fish.

This fish is native to North America, but it has been introduced to other parts of the world as a game fish. It puts up a good fight, which is something anglers love. Their colors vary depending on where they live, how old they are, and what their spawning conditions are.

Rainbow trout’s bodies are shaped like torpedoes, and you often see yellow, green, blue, and pink colors on their bodies. Their underbellies are white and, on their backs, and on their fins, you can see tiny black spots.

Largest Rainbow Trout Caught in Texas

Timothy Boehm caught the largest rainbow trout in the Nueces River located within the state of Texas on January 13, 2010. He used power bait and brought in a rainbow trout that measured 26.5 inches long and weighed 8.92 pounds.

World’s Largest Rainbow Trout Catch

Sean Konrad caught the world’s largest rainbow trout in 2009. He was fishing at Lake Diefenbaker in Canada and caught a 48-pound rainbow trout that measured 42 inches long and had a girth of 32 inches!

Steelhead Trout vs. Rainbow Trout

Rainbow trout head out to the ocean, which makes them anadromous. They are then steelhead trout. These fish are jumpers and can make it up to 11 feet in the air when migrating and making it over waterfalls. They’re speedy fish too. They can move from 0 miles per hour up to 25 miles per hour in the blink of an eye. Since they migrate, they grow a lot bigger than your typical rainbow trout.

Some steelhead trout have grown to weigh up to 55 pounds and have made it to 11 years old. On average, they reach between 18 and 24 inches long but there have been steelhead trout that have grown as long as 45 inches. These fish develop more silvery colors and the way to tell the difference between a steelhead trout and a rainbow trout is to look at its scales or go deeper and inspect the chemical composition of its ear bones.