The state releases part of its trout brood stock every fall to create some real and unexpected excitement during ice fishing. In most cases, though, too few of the huge fish are present such that catching one of them falls into the category of plain-old luck. In a few select ponds, however, enough of these fish were released in the fall of 2012 that it would make sense to target them specifically.

For this blog, I will define a lunker trout as measuring 20 or more inches. Such a fish would weigh in at between 3.5 and 4.5 lbs depending on its actual size, which would make anyone’s ice fishing day! I also defined the minimum stocking density where it becomes worth targeting these fish as around 0.5 fish per acre of pond. This value is roughly the stocking density for landlocked salmon throughout Maine.

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