Daryl Bauer, Fisheries Outreach Program Manager
What is a trophy? You can find all kinds of definitions for that word. One I like, one from an old-fashioned book called a dictionary, says that a trophy is anything serving as a reminder.
I remember all kinds of fish. Have often said that big specimens of almost any species really turn my crank. Most anglers would agree with that. Big fish matter.
Trophies can be defined by Master Angler Awards or even State Records. It is appropriate that there are some widely-accepted norms for defining trophy fish. Believe me, I love fish recognition programs.
But if you do not meet those standards, does that mean a particular catch is NOT a trophy?
NO! Absolutely not!
Have blogged about this topic before and told the story of one of my most prized catches. It was not one of the biggest fish I ever caught.
No, in fact it was barely more than a foot long and did not qualify for any type of award. It was a 13-inch brook trout caught from a small Pine Ridge stream. At the time, the fish was with an even bigger brook trout, but when I spotted that male it was in full spawning colors and I knew I wanted that fish! Crawled on hands and knees to get into position to cast to the fish without spooking it. Held my breath as it moved forward to take my bait. Then I panicked after landing the beauty and discovering my camera was out of film! Fortunately, my photo processing shop was able to pull one frame of that fish off the very end of the roll of film–one of my most prized catch & release trophies!
Trophies can be “firsts”, “bests” or hard-earned achievements. They may be trophies because of the times, places or people we shared them with.
I got to thinking about this topic again recently when I read an article on Trout Unlimited’s website, The True Cast – The 8-inch “Trophy”. Let me finish with a couple of points from that article by Kirk Deeter: First, a trophy is whatever you want it to be. Secondly, nobody is keeping score! You “win” whenever and with whatever fish you want to!
When you figure that out, you will appreciate the fish, and the time you get to spend with them a whole lot more! The fish are the real trophies, every one of them!