this rainbow was caught on loch leven and weighed six and a quarter pounds caught on a claret hopper,these fish must rank as one of the best looking and fighting rainbows in the world,and deinately not what you would call a pellet pig ,this fish was stocked three years earlier at twelve ounces

Much as I decry stocked rainbows and wasn't in agreement with stocking rainbows into Leven I have to agree that this is one of the nicest looking rainbows you could wish to see and it is essentially a wild fish.

__________________
“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

Fish like that are why I still drift about the ressers !
A beautiful example of a great rainbow !

__________________
Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

I'll second that rookstorm, those two wintered rainbows in Leven were in a class of their own.In particular, season 96-97 was memorable for the number of grilse-like chromers being brought in by the boats.They were perfect in every way,no flaws.
There were two different types,a deeper bodied fish which tended to slug it out under the boat for 20 minutes, refusing to let you get their heads up.Then there was the sleeker turbo-charged version which stayed near the surface and ran as far away from the boat as they could at extreme speed....I liked those...

I recall hooking one virtually under my rod top and within a matter of seconds,it had took out all my fly-line and around 50 yards of backing as it cart-wheeled off into the middle distance.It just sipped my fly quietly off the surface like a wee brownie when it took.

Ive no pics that would do those fish any justice,only this blurry one ...sorry.. the best one I ever saw was a fish of 12lb odd which was taken near the Green Isle.It was a belter.

that first photo is a beauty rookstorm! i dream of catching rainbows like that!

wee jimmy thats a belter!............................................................of a hat!

This is probably the best(not the biggest) Rainbow i have caught it also came from Leven around May 1996 i think .

__________________
Come when the leaves come,angle with me,Come when the bees hum,crossing the lea,Come to discover the angling delights,of the Melvin with me.

This is about the best looking Stockie I've ever taken. About seven and a half pounds from Packington Fishery, last season some time.

__________________
Roy

Aye and whats with the lumberjack shirt.... That pic was taken about 12 years ago right enough...

Heres another blurry one from even further back (June'88)This was my first ever Rutland rainbow.We had nothing like these in Scotland in those days....

I like the bloom on this ones tail and the coral/orange fins.

It is a nice looking fish but how do you know when it was stocked ?

B.R.

this fish was caught three years after they started stocking with 3/4 pound rainbows and i was told that it would take that amount of time to grow to this size which is correct