Derby Fisherman Catches a State-Record Rainbow with a Vintage Rod and a Live Worm  

The 76^th annual Riverton Fishing Derby was held April 11 on the West Branch of the Farmington River in southwestern Connecticut. It’s a popular tradition for countless anglers, and the state fisheries department stocks the river with big broodstock trout every spring with the help of local fishing clubs.

Rich Courtright, 20, and his dad, Richie, have fished the derby annually for years, and the father and son were at it again in April. Along with the rest of the crowd, they fished from 6 to 10 a.m., and then brought their biggest fish to the weigh-in.

“I got third place for a 5.6-pound rainbow and won a handmade wooden clock,” Rich tells Outdoor Life. “We were done fishing and headed back home to Bethel. Because we were driving along the river edge we decided to stop and fish the West Branch some more.”

The two parked and walked to a stretch of river where dozens of anglers had already fished that morning. Rich and Richie split up on the river, each going their separate ways in search of trout.

“There were still some guys along the banks casting for trout when I got near the water,” says Rich. “I fished for a while and saw a flash of red in clear water deep behind a boulder. I could see that it was a big trout, much bigger than the boulder.”

Rich cast at the fish and then switched up his rig. Pretty soon, he’d thrown his whole tackle box at the fish, “from Rapalas to spoons to everything else” he had.

“That’s when I called my dad and told him I was looking at a state-record rainbow.”

Richie walked to where his son was fishing and watched him from a hill above the river.

“I was frustrated that I couldn’t catch it. Then I remembered I had some live meal worms in our vehicle,” Rich explains. “I left the river, went and got the worms, then came back.”

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Using 6-pound test line, Rich baited a worm on a small, size 8 hook with a few split shot above it. He cast it out with an old trusty Penn spinning reel his dad had given him, coupled with a vintage, 4-foot 8-inch ultralight rod that his uncle gifted him as a kid.

“I’ve caught a lot of trout with that set up and started casting that 1-inch meal worm ahead of the rainbow, letting it drift back in the current,” he says. “I made a dozen casts without spooking him, then finally he hit my worm.”

The trout never jumped, and Rich worked hard to keep it out of the river’s main current, knowing it could take off and strip all the line from his old reel. He fought the trout for nearly 10 minutes, finally bringing it close and into a large hoop landing net.

“I didn’t know how big it was until I landed it, but I knew it was a state record and we had to get it weighed.”

They loaded the fish into their car and went to a nearby tackle shop, which didn’t have a certified scale. Next, they went to a Stop-and-Shop grocery store in the town of Winstead.

“I went inside and walked to the seafood area where I found Joe the department manager,” Rich said. “He at first didn’t want to put the fish on his scale. But I told him it was gonna be a state record rainbow. Finally, after me and my dad kept prodding him, he put it on his scale.”

The seafood scale showed 16.47 pounds, as shown on the printed receipt they got.

On Monday, Connecticut officials declared Rich’s rainbow trout the new state record, with an official weight of 16 pounds, 7.5 ounces. It tops the previous record of 14 pounds 10 ounces, that was set in 1998.

Rich, who is respectful of derby fishing traditions, is going to have his fish mounted by a taxidermist who’s a veteran angler

“He’s going to make a real skin mount of my trout, and I’m going to display it above my bed.”