Kevin Horton of Avery Island caught his monster while fishing western Vermilion Bay with friend Kenny Benoit on Aug. 17. Horton’s trophy trout measured 28 inches, and pulled the scales to 7.31 pounds.
“It was hot, and there weren’t a lot of fish,” Horton said about the trip. “I think we caught eight fish all day, and that was the second-to-last fish I caught. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon.”
Horton and Benoit were fishing a platform in the bay in about 6 feet of water. Horton threw a black/chartreuse cocahoe.
“(The fish) hit right when the bait hit the water,” he said.
Horton set the hook, and saw the fish protest on the surface. After that, though, everything was anti-climactic.
“It came right to the top of the water, and swam straight to the net,” Horton said. “Perfect! You couldn’t have asked for it to be better.”
They had been at it since before sunrise, but the two friends kept right on fishing, boating two 4-pounders in addition to the lunker.
“I wasn’t thinking STAR at the time,” Horton said. “We had been out there that long, I figured sooner or later they had to turn on.
“I knew it was a big fish, but I didn’t weigh it until we got to Dago’s. We tried to weigh it on the boat, but it was too rough. I knew it was 7 pounds.”
Horton fishes four to five times a month, but this was only his second year fishing the STAR.
Unlike some of the other winners who had to wait months to see if their fish would hold the top spot, Horton had to sweat it out for only a few weeks.
“It was a pretty long time, it seemed like to me,” he said.
