Grant Bentz of McGaheyesville, Virginia, set a new state record when he pulled a massive 14-pound 12-ounce rainbow trout out of Spring Creek on June 9, according to a Wednesday press release from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.
Bentz first hooked the big rainbow on June 8. He was fishing on private property with permission from the landowner, tossing a Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a jighead. The spot is one he’s fished for more than 20 years. On his last cast of the day, Bentz saw a colossal flash deep in a pool just before the stream from flat water to high-gradient rapids.
“This large head came up and gulped the jig,” Bentz said. “I set the hook, and the battle ensued. It was five minutes of chasing this fish. I was wearing waders and running up and down the stream because I couldn’t stop it. It was just so big. I finally got it to the net, but because it was just too heavy, the jighead bent, and I lost the fish.”
Although losing a big trout was disappointing, Bentz didn’t give up. Having hooked big trout before, he knew that this fish, which he estimated at the time to be about 10 pounds, and knew that the fish wasn’t likely to move very far from the spot in such a small watershed. He returned the following day with gear better suited for reeling in big trout.
“I came back the next morning spooled up with 10-pound braid and put on a circle hook with a whole nightcrawler I gathered, which seems to be what big trout will eat,” Bentz said.
He managed to hook up with the same big rainbow on his first cast. He fought the giant for an exciting five minutes. The trout had managed to fray the line, however, which snapped just as Bentz attempted to wrangle it into the net. After getting a closer look at the fish, Bentz realized it was far larger than he’d first guessed.
“The second time I lost it, I got a better look at it, and I realized the fish might be more like 12 pounds,” Bentz said. “I’d lost it twice now, but this had happened to me before on smaller fish. I figured I’d just give him a little time to calm down because larger fish in a small stream like that, they’re hungry all the time. So typically, if you give them some time to forget about what happened, they’ll eat again.”
Bentz left the fish to settle while he visited with the landowner over a few cups of coffee. When he returned to the stream an hour later, the big trout ended up on his hook again.
“It was still a big fight, but I feel like the fish had used up a lot of its energy during the first fight,” he said. “It was still a struggle, but eventually, I got him into the net, which was only about half the size it needed to be.
After Bentz pulled the fish onto the bank and got a good look at it, he realized it was much larger than 12 pounds.
After snapping a few photos, Bentz measured the fish at 33 inches long and 19 1/2 inches around the middle. He also used a handheld fish scale to measure the weight.
“[The scale] weighed it at 14 pounds, 12 ounces, which just blew my mind,” Bentz said.
Bentz was on his way home when he realized the trout in his cooler might be a new Virginia state record, so he pulled off the road, stopping at Stokesville Market in Mount Solon to check the weight on a certified scale and have it verified by a DWR employee. The next day, he headed to the DWR office in Verona to complete paperwork and get an official fish inspection.
Bentz’s big rainbow outweighed the previous state record, which was caught by Michael Lowe out of Greer’s Pond in June 1983, by five ounces. Lowe’s fish had been caught before new Virginia state record fish rules were adopted in 1985, which exempted fish caught “within the boundaries of, or directly influenced by, a public or private aquaculture facility.”
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After the fish was inspected, Bentz filleted it and served it for dinner.
“I know a lot of people don’t approve of that, but in this stream, depending on weather conditions during the summer, the water levels really get low, and the water warms up, so the odds of survival for big trout are pretty slim,” Bentz said. “I did eat this fish after it was weighed and recorded. There’s this misconception that large trout don’t taste good, but I find they do. This one had crimson filets that looked like salmon and tasted great.”
Bentz also plans to have a replica of his record-book fish made to hang on his wall.
