Massive Rainbow Trout Caught in the Roanoke River

There is fishing. And then there is fishing.

Bobby Welsh was fishing for bass in the Roanoke River when a huge trout hit his fly.

“My fly line, which is above the water, acts like a bobber, I saw it pull and then almost immediately the fish rushed to the other side of the river, and I I immediately knew it was big because it was just pulling the drag out of the water. my reel,” Welsh said. “I saw the flash immediately when I hooked it, I saw the flash in the water and it looked really big.”

He had to run up and down the bank to stay with the fish and keep it from breaking the line.

“I probably had to go a quarter mile down the river trying to manage the line, to make sure it didn’t go too far, too fast,” Welsh said.

Welsh was eventually able to take him back, but the fight wasn’t over.

“It took me four or five tries with the net, and it barely fit in the net… but, you know, I finally did.”

In the end, the rainbow trout weighed 7.8 pounds and 26 and a half inches. A trophy, of course.

“I was surprised. I’ve been fishing the Roanoke for a long time and I love the Roanoke and all the opportunities it offers me 10 minutes from home, but I never imagined that something this big , as far away in the summer, could stand there I was really impressed, truly the biggest rainbow trout I have ever caught and the biggest I have seen in the Roanoke River. motivates me even more to spend more time here and continue fishing,” Welsh said.