Brook Trout

[MT Gianni]

We iced a few Brook Trout last week.

[chsparkman]

Now that is awesome. Brookies are tasty too.

[WallyM3]

I have a soft spot for Brookies (Char of any kind, really). I' taken them up to 10 pounds in Labrador, but the little guys around here (Batten Kill River, Arlington, VT) are real scamps. Haven't killed one in 15 years (don't like fish...).

[AlaskanGuy]

Close cousin to our Dolly Varden Char.... Brookies are Char also, not trout as the name implies.... but they are real yummy just the same..

[WallyM3]

Though this isn't the Forum for it, the evolution of American fly fishing has a great deal to do with the Brown edging out the Brook as the survivor in developed areas of the US.

Hook and Bullet used to be more linked than it is now.

[tommag]

You're making me hungry! Those look big enough to have nice red flesh.

[longshot1154]

My wife, son and I love trout fishing. I started smoking them like I would salmon. I skin them but leave them on the bone. Marinate overnight then a few hours in the smoker with cherry wood. Great stuff. Wish I could get some that looked like that. Great catch.

[AlaskanGuy]

Here is what the dollies look like... See how they look alike??? Same white tipped fins and markings... Side by side, if they were the same size, you couldnt tell them apart... I think the only real difference is their diet, and the trip back and forth to sea water, while brookies are not sea run.

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Of course size wise, the Dolly Varden is like a brookie on superman steroids.... They get real big and are sea run....
This is why they get so big....
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In the spring, they come up the rivers to gorge themselves on salmon fingerlings, and in the fall, they tuck in next to spawning salmon and gobble up free floating salmon eggs... At times they look like footballs... Brookies need to survive on bugs, and tiny critters, and dont get the delux food that the dollies get. Here is a pic of AlaskaGurl and a nice spring fish without the colors yet... Our fish dont get colors till the fall and are very silvery in the spring.
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And another pic of AlaskaGurls youngest daughter with some nice dollys...
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I smoke them also, and they are one of my favorites smoked...

Ag

[longshot1154]

Geez and I thought I was doing good when I catch a 10 inch brookie!

[WallyM3]

Well, around here, that is good.

[AlaskanGuy]

Those are awesome brookies. I have never caught one over 8 inches sir... Had lots of them in montana, but they were small and yummy, so a 10 incher is a trophy my friend.... You did great...

[MT Gianni]

I can't brag too much. This is on two private ponds. A friend manages the ranch for cattle 48 weeks a year and guides the owner and friends the other four. They planted Rainbow in it a few years ago and we keep the 'bows in it. There are four age classes of Brook trout in it. Some will push three pounds and have shoulders like a tuna. There is no better breakfast on the ice than to take a couple of the 12" ones, lat a piece of bacon on either side and slather them in Johnny's seasoning salt. Wrap in foil and cook 20 minutes a side on a small bbq. Most ranch's here have an irrigation pond. Many are overrun with perch with 3" maximum size but those that have had a good run of medium trout put in them can knock those back to a manageable size. 3"-4" planted trout will get pecked to death but 5"-6" will get you 11"-13" trout and 7" perch in 15 months. There is a lot of myotis shrimp in most of the springs here.

[swheeler]

Gianni you got some nice worm backs there, good job.

[Grendl]

You guys are killing me , haven't shaken a fly rod at any Trout since we moved to Texas. But lord those are beautiful fish , you are blessed.
Rick

[429421Cowboy]

Now that touches a soft spot for me! I love fishing for brookies, dad took my brothers and I after them every third Saturday in May when they opened, and again anytime after that in the summer.

Most of the only memories of my grandfather were of sitting on the ice with him as a little kid fishing for brookies on our stock pond on the ranch that was stocked with shrimp and trout every other year. Hadn't thought about that in a long time till just now!

[dtknowles]

Those look like some awesome fish. A lot as a kid and sometimes as an adult, I would catch 6 to 8 inchers on a string tied to a tree branch with a hook and earth worm, in brooks you could step over. They were easy to clean, cook and eat. In better times I would fish ponds for the same Rainbows and on the best evenings we would fly fish during a Mayfly hatch in the moonlight at dusk. Never caught anything like that but my Uncle had one like that on his wall. Biggest I ever caught was just under 2 pounds and was 16 inches long. Never caught one ice fishing only perch, and pickerel or smelts. This was all in Maine.

Tim

[dale2242]

Oregon ODF&W planted Brook trout in the high lakes and streams of Southern Oregon years ago.
Now they are an EXOTIC species with no limit. They want them gone.
Another case of good government agency planning....dale

[LeftyDon]

Though this isn't the Forum for it, the evolution of American fly fishing has a great deal to do with the Brown edging out the Brook as the survivor in developed areas of the US.

Hook and Bullet used to be more linked than it is now.

That plus cutting down the trees around the streams warming the water to the point that brookies turn belly up.

[LeftyDon]

Now that is awesome. Brookies are tasty too.

That they are! Cast iron pan, butter and the nearest shore for a fire and live it good.

[TCLouis]

Catching some of the little guys in N. NM streams must be some of my earliest fishing for "trout" memories.
Brookies I happily caught in the Rio en Medio could almost be used for bait to catch those Brookies you have lying there.

Years pass, then I catch some in the Conejos (Colorado) when I fished there. Usually caught them in the side branches, not the main stem of the river. One of life's memories was fishing the Conejos just before dark, started with a beautiful male Brookie in full spawning colors, follwed shortly with a brilliantly marked Brownie about 15". Just at dark I snagged my lure in a deep run that ran under overhanging willows. I kept jerking trying to dislodge it (4# test here) and on about the 4th or 5th twitch the snag took off on a run. some 10 or 15 minutes later I reached down to lip a 27" Brownie.
Let me give you a hint, . . . do NOT lip a large Brown, when they thrash a bit your thumb starts bleeding.
Back in the river he went with the others that day and today almost 35 years later I still smile when I think of that day!
There was one Brookie in a beaver pond off to the side of the valley from the main river that must have been about 18", he would follow, but NEVER strike.

In their fall spawning color they have to be one of the most beautiful fish beside the darters.