<\/p>\n
A Durango man pulled a hefty prize from the Animas River on Friday: a 28.5-inch female rainbow trout.<\/p>\n
Rob Thomas was fishing with a friend behind the Powerhouse Science Center early Friday afternoon when he felt the abrasive tug on the end of the pole that\u2019s every fisherman\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said a prayer right before,\u201d said Thomas, who used a 12-pound test line.<\/p>\n
The strength of the fish broke the fishing pole into three pieces, but the line endured, Thomas said.<\/p>\n
The trout was then hauled from the river and plunked personally onto the floor of The Durango Herald\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Thomas has been a local resident since 1977, but he said never in his 39 years in Durango has he scored a fish of that size.<\/p>\n
He said the catch was a reassurance after last summer\u2019s Gold King Mine spill, which polluted the Animas and San Juan rivers with 3 million gallons of acid mine drainage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw that orange marmalade coming downstream, I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever get anything out of there again,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019 trout was about six inches shy of breaking a state record for length for rainbow trout. The title-holder reeled in a 34-inch catch in 2003 from the Morrow Point Reservoir in Gunnison.<\/p>\n
Under Colorado Parks and Wildlife size regulations, Thomas was not required to release the fish. Agency spokesperson Joe Lewandowski said larger fish are becoming typical for the Animas River.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still fish in there, but we\u2019re not getting the amount of reproduction we\u2019d like to see, so we haven\u2019t seen a lot of smaller fish,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you survey a river, you look for age class, and you want to see a variety of sizes. Our age classes in the Animas haven\u2019t looked good in several years, and that\u2019s because of the various metals and urban-type pollution in the river and less snowpack.\u201d<\/p>\n