Well, I have been trout fishing in Southeast PA for the last several days. I have kept some and released others. Today, I caught two rainbow trout. One was very silvery and long. The other was very colorful and fat. The fat one was hooked badly and bled a lot. It was not likely that it would have survived so I kept it, along with the other fish. Upon further review, I believe that that fat fish was ready to spawn. Was this the case? I feel really bad and guilty.

Rainbow trout are stocked in PA waters because there is very little natural reproduction. Those fish are there to be taken. No reason to feel bad about taking a fish that was very unlikely to have a successful spawn anyway.

If you think like that, all the fish you kept before were preparing to spawn just not as far along as the one you kept today. Don't feel bad. There wouldn't be a limit/regulations on them if they weren't meant to be kept. 

There's plenty others out there.

10 hours ago, CroakHunter said:

If you think like that, all the fish you kept before were preparing to spawn just not as far along as the one you kept today. Don't feel bad. There wouldn't be a limit/regulations on them if they weren't meant to be kept. 

 

If there wasn't they wouldn't have it where you could keep them.