I fully believe that big fish eat big meals, here are two fish a buddy of mine and I caught last year on a very popular nymph pattern usually tied in size #12 to #16, We used a #6 of this pattern and caught these 2 guys in North Georgia and North Carolina. Both of these fish were caught in June about 3 weeks apart both caught on the same fly pattern size #6. Both came from public rivers not private pay fishing rivers
24" Rainbow aprox 8lbs

29" Brown aprox. 16 lbs