Fresno fisherman lands rare trophy brown trout at Shaver Lake

True trophy brown trout are exceedingly rare, some would say that they are as non-existent as unicorns but occasionally, a trophy trout is landed on the west side of the Sierra Nevada.

Byron Stickler of Fresno, a dedicated trophy brown hunter, was rewarded for his hours of perseverance during cold days in the Sierras with a 33-inch, 18-pound, 5-ounce brown trout at Shaver Lake on Sunday, Jan. 14.

Stickler took a quick photo of his catch before releasing the fish back into the waters.

Brown trout are native to Europe, parts of North Africa, and Western Asia. They were first imported to the U.S. from Germany in 1893 and so they are commonly referred to as German Browns.

California has a number of locations known for brown trout, and Shasta, Twin Lakes, Hat Creek, Crowley Lake, Hell Hole, Lake Almanor, and Baum Lake are considered the top locations for browns.

Since originally being stocked in California waters, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has been very selective in continuing to plant the species due to their aggressive nature and non-native status.

Recently, triploid brown trout have been released in locations such as Shaver Lake in the central Sierras, and these fish are just now showing up on stringers. Stickler’s catch (from its size) was not one of the trout planted within the past several years, and it most likely survived upriver during the draining of Shaver Lake several years ago or migrated downstream from Huntington.

“Byron had asked me to go fishing with him a few weeks earlier, and he ended up going to Shaver since Huntington was snowed in,” fishing guide Roger George said.

“He worked very hard for this, and he did everything right when releasing the trophy. Stickler and his wife, Kim, have released other fish over 10 pounds, but this one was close to the lake record.”

Tim Young of the Shaver Lake Trophy Trout Project has been targeting brown trout on the west side of the Sierra’s for decades.

“It appears to Byron and I that Shaver is making a comeback for trophy browns,” Young said. “Several people have called me about the lake record, and I remember a 20-pound plus landed in the 80s by Terry Beam.”

Young said he landed a 35-inch, 18.75-pound brown at Shaver Lake on Jan. 11 in the 1980s while Stickler’s fish was caught on Jan. 14.

“My brother kept excellent records of every trip, and we found some similarities as to when the big browns have been caught. Fortunately, nearly all these trophies are released as the goal is to fool these challenging fish before letting them live to grow even larger,” Young said.

Both Shaver and Huntington are prime waters for a rebound of trophy browns with abundant kokanee populations and frequent plantings of catchable rainbows. A healthy kokanee population is a key to trophy spotted bass lakes such as Bullard’s Bar, Pardee, and Shasta, and it seems the same conditions exist at Shaver and Huntington. Every once in a while, a large brown trout is landed unexpectedly, but the reality is, true trophy browns take days and days of trolling solo, keeping exact records, and remaining optimistic even though success comes only through hard work.

Dave Hurley is a longtime educator, fishing writer and member of the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.