Hunter Rohr of Buckhannon caught a state record golden rainbow trout in the Smoke Hole area during the state’s annual Gold Rush event.
The 28.0-inch, 11.84-pound golden rainbow trout set a record for both length and weight.
On April 2, 15-year-old Rohr and Bryar Sandy, his high school buddy, were fishing in the Smoke Hole section of the South Branch of the Potomac River.
Rohr was using light spinning tackle and floats to target the fish when he spotted a large fish holding near a log in the deep, clear hole. He reported that after trying several lures without success, he used a single pink steelheaded egg he had cured from a previous steelhead catch near Lake Erie. The trout took the egg and a two-minute fight ensued. He described the fish as “too fat to jump,” sloshing and fighting before Sandy helped net it. Usually he releases the fish, but knowing the trout was probably big enough to break a record, Rohr put this one in a cooler before taking it to be weighed.
A freshman at Buckhannon Upshur High School, he is a member of the school’s bass-fishing team. He and a friend recently won first place for West Virginia High School fishing team.
Rohr has family ties in Pendleton County. His great-great-grandparents were Dayton and Eva Hedrick Mallow from Onego, and he is related to the Rhodes line from Grady.
“This young man has been fishing since he was three or four years old. He comes from a long line of fishermen who have all fished the rivers of Pendleton,” stated Rose Neely of French Creek, his grandma. “I just want to let everyone in Pendleton County know that his young man is more than a young fisherman but a part of their history also.”
“Hunter can now say my fish is bigger than Grandma Neely’s 18-pound salmon,” she commented.
She continued that “Hunter also takes time to help and show younger children how to fish.”
