Fish Pictures

[Steeldrifter 0]

 

Fished a different local river this morning. Pretty decent bow, and rolled a nice brown trout that was probably mid teens or close to it.

[niveker 0]

Really nice DF, always great when the natives answer the door to let you know they're still home. 

[niveker 0]

4 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

Pretty decent bow

Pretty decent 'bow and a pretty 'bow. 

[DFoster 0]

18 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

 

 

Fished a different local river this morning. Pretty decent bow, and rolled a nice brown trout that was probably mid teens or close to it.

Nice fish Steve-  I see what you mean about the spot pattern being different from our stocked bows.

[DFoster 0]

18 hours ago, feathers5 said:

Beautiful. Do you ever pull out any large  brookies from there?

Thank you- The largest I've caught on that stream were maybe 8"?  6" to 8" is about average for Brook trout in most of Massachusetts streams.  Larger ones can be found on our larger rivers but for those of us that blue line natives in New England do so on very light tackle with low size expectations.   Small they may be they still can be one of the most challenging fish to hook.  Usually there is no beaten path to reach the streams where they live.  I guess most anglers don't want to put in that much effort to catch such a small fish?  Once you get to the stream you're more often than not greeted with overgrown brush and brambles.  Really tight casting is made more difficult because they are typically hyper spooky.  The photo above is an unusual part of the stream where it's really open for about 175', I thought I was in Yorkshire England for a while. 😃

[DFoster 0]

I've been struggling with nymphs on stocked water this spring.  With the euro nymphing craze dominating the sport I think the stockers get wise to nymphs almost as quickly as they do to rooster tails.  Whatever the reason I've been doing really well this spring with winged wets and soft hackles.  As they are not typically sold anymore in fly shops maybe it's simply because the trout haven't seen them?  I got this one on a light Cahill in the Leisenring Lift.

[feathers5 0]

6 hours ago, DFoster said:

Thank you- The largest I've caught on that stream were maybe 8"?  6" to 8" is about average for Brook trout in most of Massachusetts streams.  Larger ones can be found on our larger rivers but for those of us that blue line natives in New England do so on very light tackle with low size expectations.   Small they may be they still can be one of the most challenging fish to hook.  Usually there is no beaten path to reach the streams where they live.  I guess most anglers don't want to put in that much effort to catch such a small fish?  Once you get to the stream you're more often than not greeted with overgrown brush and brambles.  Really tight casting is made more difficult because they are typically hyper spooky.  The photo above is an unusual part of the stream where it's really open for about 175', I thought I was in Yorkshire England for a while. 😃

I go to places like you, too, to catch native brookies about the same size. I get a certain joy out of knowing I'm catching the only trout native to our country. I always think the New England states grow much bigger brookies. Enjoy yourself.

[DFoster 0]

14 hours ago, feathers5 said:

I go to places like you, too, to catch native brookies about the same size. I get a certain joy out of knowing I'm catching the only trout native to our country. I always think the New England states grow much bigger brookies. Enjoy yourself.

 I'm told that at the time of the pilgrims landing Brook trout were much larger and far more prevalent.   I was told in a fly shop one day that eating all the large ones in the 1800's effectivly ended the genetic strains.  I'm not sure if that is true, but a state biologist told me that farmers clear cutting their land caused many rivers that held brookies to warm beyond their tolerance.  The tree canopies have returned but in some areas not the brook trout.  Many fly anglers including myself wish our state would spend some of the stocking budget reintroducing brook trout to these streams instead of dumping thousands of Rainbows into warm water rivers where they die out in 3 months.  That said I do have the Swift River nearby and the brook trout in there are wild and can grow large.  Here are a few of my better ones but I have see people catch them even bigger.

few

 

 

 

[Steeldrifter 0]

Those are some beauties there above. I love brookies. They are the only fish that you can catch that is 6" and it brings a smile to your face. We have a good population of them here in Michigan, they are our State fish. Biggest I personally have caught here so far is 11", but there are some much bigger in our waters. I just haven't found one of those as of yet.

[feathers5 0]

Very beautiful. I'd love to catch a brookie like those.

[DFoster 0]

Brown trout that was fooled by a #16 pheasant tail nymph.  Not huge but the hardest fighting fish of the year for me so far.  

[DFoster 0]

19 hours ago, feathers5 said:

Very beautiful. I'd love to catch a brookie like those.

PA is known for Brook Trout fishing, you must have some water where they grow a little bit larger nearby?

[feathers5 0]

I, personally, don't know of any place I can find brookies near 12 inches, but I do know where I can catch bunches of small brookies within 50 miles of my home. I'm sure there are some places in PA where they grow a little bigger, but I'm not aware of those streams. Those are kept secret and I don't blame anyone for that.

The Best

[SilverCreek 0]

48 minutes ago, feathers5 said:

I, personally, don't know of any place I can find brookies near 12 inches, but I do know where I can catch bunches of small brookies within 50 miles of my home. I'm sure there are some places in PA where they grow a little bigger, but I'm not aware of those streams. Those are kept secret and I don't blame anyone for that.

The Best

12 inch brookies are ultra rare in my local streams as well. They get harvested for the frying pan.

[Guest]

We callem Redbellies but they’re actually Longeared Sunfish…  Although they can show up anywhere they are more prevalent in creeks/moving water than regular bream around here.   Most state lake’s bream are Coppernose but the Shell Crackers(Redear Sunfish) get bigger than most other bream.