Quote Originally Posted by pspaint
A friend of mine us to live in Arkansas and he said a lot of those big fish were actually raised to those sizes in the hatcheries.

What? That is the funniest thing I've every heard. In fact the fish in the Little Red are 100% wild fish. The Little Red has not had a brown trout stocked in for nearly 40 years. The last world record was a little over 17 years old and was a little over 40 pounds.

I know as sure as I breath air that there are fish in these river that would easily top 50 pounds and possibly 80. It is difficult to really be able to tell how much girth a fish has while it is in the water. The previous world record was slightly over 40 inches. I have seen fish (with my own eyes) that would possibly top 50 inches and have a with across their backs close to 18 inches. The math on that size fish staggers the imagination.

Big fish are by no means out of the norm here. I've guided fish over 20 pounds every year for the last 5 years in a row. By guided I mean hooked, landed, took a picture. There have been countless numbers of fish hooked and lost. Actually the odds of landing a huge fish are relatively slim. Just ask Joe.

I hope he gets another chance.

John Wilson