When is a 10 inch fish better than a 24 inch fish?

[sbalsen]

When it's a wild brookie!
I skipped my hour long commute to the Farmington last night and fished a local stream near my home in Chatham, NY. There's a spot with a deep pool where a tributary feeds ice cold water in all summer long. I hadn't even cast my line yet, it was just laying in the water with an elk hair caddis tied on as my generic attractor. I was still sort of composing myself on the water when there was an aggressive take of the fly. After a rather surprising fight I had a gorgeous 10 inch brookie in my yet! It was beautifully colored and it's adispose fin was intact, so I assume it was a wild one. NYS stocks browns and occassional rainbows in the spot, but I don't think they stock any brook trout. I caught quite a few stocked browns, which just didn't match the beauty of the brookie. To top it off, later in the evening I caught another brookie. This time about 8 inches, but just as gorgeous. The tributary was rumored to hold brook trout, but these were the first I've caught there the 8many years I've fished it.
After you've caught a wild brook trout, you really realize what a tragic loss they are and the sad state of our northeast environment. And to think, the brook trout was the indigenous fish in these streams.

[Todd K]

I find the Brook Trout to be the most beautiful fish of any. If you catch a large Brookie, that is another story!

[The Fisherman]

I share both your passion for this beautiful fish. I'd estimate that 50% of my fishing trips this year have been in pusuit of small stream wild Brookies.

My creative partner and fellow fly fisherman Kingsford and I are working on a pro bono project right now for brookie.org; it's a poster about the decline and efforts to save the eastern brook trout. It's going to be a terrific piece, and we hope to have it printed and distributed to NE flyshops soon.

[sbalsen]

The main stream where I fished gets heavy pressure in the spring from bait fisherman. Those two brookies that I caught were extra lucky not to wind up in someone's creel, probably someone who didn't even know what he had caught!
Sy

[lar42]

Perfect excuse for that stream to be Catch & Release Only!!

I agree too that the Brookie is most beautiful fish in the river.

Fisherman, I have a question for you. As I have stated before on this forum, I fish a Class 3 WMTA near my home and catch some quite nice fish there. Class 3, as you already know, means they lightly stock. I'm curious what they stock. I thought maybe you would have some idea from your expertise in this area. :wink: Are they stocking all breeds of trout, i.e., Rainbows, Browns and Brookies? I ask because I have caught a few Brookies that measure 14" easily. They were extremely fun to catch! 8) :) Not many people brave the area I like to fish because the Mosquito Hatch is always in full bloom!! :) I just lather on the repellant and proceed to catch fish in solitude! :wink: :)

[kpccsu48]

I agree the wild brookie is the most beautiful fish we have in the area. Nothing better than getting that close up look at all of thier colors and markings if you happen to get one.

[The Fisherman]

To quote from the book of DEP:

"Class 3 — Some wild trout, most also stocked with catchable size & fingerling size trout."

It depends on the stream; I'd have to know the name to tell you what's in there. Or, you could look it up the DEP stream guide to see what wild trout are growing there. For example, accoring to the guide, the only wild trout the Class 3 Beacon Hill Brook holds are Browns. That's probably what they put in there fingerling-wise. I would think that in terms of the DEP putting fingerlings in Class 3s, it varies from stream to stream. I can't see that they'd put Brookie fingerlings in a warmer stream with low summer flows that only supports wild Browns. Browns can survive where no Brookie or Rainbow can. Likewise, my best guess is that they wouldn't stock any Rainbow fingerlings anywhere in small streams, period. At least not with the hope of holdover. As we know the occurance of wild Rainbows in CT small streams is exremely rare.

That 14" Brookie was almost certainly a stocked fish. I've yet to encounter a wild Brookie in a small CT stream that surpassed 11".

Hope this helps. :D

[The Patriot]

One minor correction..... it is the RAINBOW.... not the brown... which can survive the highest temps. I was shocked too, always believing it was the brown, but we had this discussion on catskillflies.com, and the rainbow has a broader range of tolerable temps (albeit not by more than a few degrees), and can tolerate higher temps than even the browns.

I took the position that it was the brown, but was disproven by a research project which another member cited and linked to at some college out west. I should go back to that forum and try to find the link....

I chalk this up to their penchant for lying in fast, highly oxygenated water. The brown can tolerate lower oxygen levels and higher siltation, but the rainbow has the higher temp tolerance.

[The Fisherman]

Interesting! I did not know that. The point I was trying to make, though, was that the Brown can tolerate a wider range of water qualities. Otherwise, we'd see more wild Rainbows in CT, yes?

[lar42]

Fisherman,

I went and checked the file you mentioned on how many trout are stocked and where. I was shocked, :shock: , to see how many fish were actually stocked on the WTMA near me. Over 2000 Brook, Brown and Rainbow, each :shock: :D , in this small stream. Also, they stocked about 400 each Brown >12" and Tiger trout >12" 8) . :D :D I'm really amazed. All of the other stockers are classified as "Adult Trout", meaning 10 - 12". I'll have to start more of this stream. Up until now I have stayed in pretty much one area. I'm excited now!! :D

[The Fisherman]

There's a lot of fun to had exploring. Enjoy!

I wonder what fingerlings they put in there? I'll betcha Browns. :wink: