THUNDER BAY – A local angler pulled a rare find out of Lake Superior last weekend.
19-year-old Tanner Hrycyk was struck by an arresting flash of blue as he reeled a 27-inch trout out of the waters of Lake Superior.
Fishing with a friend in about 60 feet of water on Black Bay, Hrycyk marveled at the unusual colouring, but didn’t initially realize just how special his catch was.
The college student said he’s a relative newcomer to fishing on Lake Superior, usually angling for walleye and pike in smaller lakes.
The pair later determined the fish to be a rare blue rainbow trout. Their unusual colouring is believed to be a genetic mutation that occurs in a vanishingly small number of hatchery-produced rainbow trout.
“The next day my buddy did some research on it, and it turns out it’s like 30 out of 40 million in a hatchery are blue, and it’s even harder to catch one,” he said.
Hrycyk was unsure what he’d do with his lucky catch. He would have released it had he realized what it was at the time, he added.
Regardless, the find will live on as a treasured memory.
“It’s probably one of the best fish I’ve caught,” he said. “I’ve caught some pretty big walleye, big pike, but no blue rainbow.”
