01-08-2007, 09:57 AM
Record sea-run brown trout caught in Saugatuck
An apparent new state record for a sea-run brown trout was set by Ron Merly of Fairfield Saturday, Dec. 30, when he hauled in a 10.50-pounder while![[Image: fishing.gif]](http://cthuntnfish.com/images/smiles/fishing.gif)
in the Saugatuck River.
According to the State Angler's Guide, published by the Department of Environmental Protection, the old record of 9 pounds 13 ounces is held by Gerald Carden, who caught his fish in the Housatonic River in Shelton om 1992. Merly said he was with a rubber Storm Shad jig lure when the fish hit. His companion on the trip, was James Orifice, owner of Jimmy O's Bait and Tackle on Fairfield Avenue.
"We'd been that area hard for the past few weeks," Orifice said, "but most everything we caught was barely over three pounds. So we were really shocked when this on came over the side."
Like salmon, Sea-run trout, are anadremous fish, migrating from fresh or brackish water of rivers and estuaries like the Saugatuck, to all-saltwater marine environments like Long Island Sound. They return to the rivers and estuaries to spawn. The Saugatuck has three fish ladders that assist migrating fish make it up the river to the spawning grounds.
Merly's trout was caught on four-pound test line, a half-mile south of the first fish ladder
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An apparent new state record for a sea-run brown trout was set by Ron Merly of Fairfield Saturday, Dec. 30, when he hauled in a 10.50-pounder while
in the Saugatuck River. According to the State Angler's Guide, published by the Department of Environmental Protection, the old record of 9 pounds 13 ounces is held by Gerald Carden, who caught his fish in the Housatonic River in Shelton om 1992. Merly said he was
with a rubber Storm Shad jig lure when the fish hit. His companion on the trip, was James Orifice, owner of Jimmy O's Bait and Tackle on Fairfield Avenue. "We'd been
that area hard for the past few weeks," Orifice said, "but most everything we caught was barely over three pounds. So we were really shocked when this on came over the side." Like salmon, Sea-run trout, are anadremous fish, migrating from fresh or brackish water of rivers and estuaries like the Saugatuck, to all-saltwater marine environments like Long Island Sound. They return to the rivers and estuaries to spawn. The Saugatuck has three fish ladders that assist migrating fish make it up the river to the spawning grounds.
Merly's trout was caught on four-pound test line, a half-mile south of the first fish ladder
[signature]