Massive Brown Trout Caught At Shaver Lake

I’ve written about my love of Shaver Lake – located in the Sierra about an hour up the mountains from Fresno – in the past, and while I’ve caught my fair share of nice trout there during my college days at Fresno State, the impressive haul one lucky angler pulled out of Shaver has me envious. Here’s more from the Fresno Bee:

Byron Stickler of Fresno, a dedicated trophy brown hunter, was rewarded for his hours of perseverance during cold days in the Sierras with a 33-inch, 18-pound, 5-ounce brown trout at Shaver Lake on Sunday, Jan. 14. Stickler took a quick photo of his catch before releasing the fish back into the waters. …

“Byron had asked me to go fishing with him a few weeks earlier, and he ended up going to Shaver since Huntington was snowed in,” fishing guide Roger George said. “He worked very hard for this, and he did everything right when releasing the trophy. Stickler and his wife, Kim, have released other fish over 10 pounds, but this one was close to the lake record.”

Tim Young of the Shaver Lake Trophy Trout Project has been targeting brown trout on the west side of the Sierra’s for decades. “It appears to Byron and I that Shaver is making a comeback for trophy browns,” Young said. “Several people have called me about the lake record, and I remember a 20-pound plus landed in the 80s by Terry Beam.”