I suspect most of these Dec/Jan big brutes are "hatchery" fish, that spawned out of their brood stock program. That's what I've been told, any ways.

The times I've fished that river, you really don't see a big push of nates until Feb on.

Yeah, that big daddy was pulled out the gene pool, but I can almost guarantee that many like it have already been caught and used in their brood stock program.

Now, I really cringe when I see a fish like that come out in March....kinda like what I did in 1996. D'oh!

PS - A first for me on the Q was this December when a good 75% of all the fish caught were clipped. I used to rarely see a clipped Q fish...ever! Glad to see some clipping is going on, on the Dec fishery.

Oh, and as for Toads, I'll take a photo of the mount Robbin has in his house. It was given to him by the brood stock/hatchery folks after they were done with it. It's a 30+ pound chromer MONSTER! If you ever need to get excited about the Big Q, just stop by his house and gaze at this fish. Ugh. I'd probably just freak out if I hooked that thing!