A 21 pounder on your first ever trip? Better retire now!
Austin Fitzhugh of Meadow Vista peaked way too early as a steelheader — the 16-year-old caught this mammoth 21-pound Smith River buck…on his first-ever steelhead fishing trip. Hate to break it to ya rookie, but you’ve got a lot of sleet, cold north wind, blown out days and frozen fingers to endure before you ever seen another one of these! Needless to say, however, awesome fish!
This fish is, of course, a February Hawg of the Month Contest entry. If you’d like to send in a big fish and battle for Hawg of the Year honors, submit your catch and info on our online form.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice job kid!! Take the advice and give r up. A nice chrome 15lber just won’t be the same. And like Glenn says WE ARE ALL EXTREMELY JEALOUS!!! I HATE YOU!!! Just kiddin. Again GOOD JOB!!!
WOW ! … hell of a fish for a rookie, definetely ruined for life ! … maybe someday I can catch one half that size lol
Congrats on the hog, but you just ruined yourself for life. Forget college, sports and everything thing else you have up to this point enjoyed. You will officially be chasing the dragon for the rest of your life. Its the best of times worst of times my friend. Welcome to the club! Just dont tell me you caught that thing skating a dry fly!!!
Congratulations! That is a beautiful Steelhead! Don’t let the comments of these other Steelheaders get you down…They’re just Verrry jealous.
Beginer’s luck! Witnessed it happen many times during my guiding career.
You might as well retire kid.. Like JD said.
Hog of a lifetime, great job. Only 999 casts for the next one, hope it’s just as nice.
My daughter’s first fish was a 10.5 lb, 27″ rainbow trout. She was 5 years old. After that, my favorite Bluegill pond didn’t impress her too much. She’d say “Daddy are there any rainbow fish in here?”