12" Freestone Wild Brookie Thread

[dc410]

wildtrout2,

That is an absolutely gorgeous brook trout. If you would have told us that is was 12" I would have believed you!

 

[wildtrout2]

Thanks. That's one of the prettier ones. I guess that's why they're the state fish.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

John I'll take you, man. Road trip (but not a far one) to a stream technically in "our region" where I caught the 2nd one.

 

[dc410]

Thanks Squatch! I appreciate the offer and really would like a chance to fish with you. I don't mind traveling a bit to fish, many days I travel an hour or an hour and a half just to get to work, so I'm kind of used to that.

 

[Reeder]

Lycoming Creek last September

 

[wildtrout2]

Reeder, that's an awesome brookie! It'll be tough to better that one.

 

[Reeder]

Thanks. I think they are all pretty awesome looking on here. If this mild winter continues, I am betting 2016 will produce several 12+ brookies on this forum. It is definitely my mission for the year.

 

[pabrookie94]

I'm not sure if these worked. I have only broken the 12" mark once with the other being around 11.5" those are my two biggest to date. Very neat thread I am excited to see what people have been catching.

 

[sarce]

Good call, Reeder- I was thinking the same thing. This year should be a good one for big brookies. There was a loooonnngg period after the spawn where the water temps stayed in the 40s and fish continued to feed heavily.

 

[Brownie101]

Takes me forever to resize pics, so I'll just post a link. 4 of these are from SEPA, and two are from NCPA. Sarce and I fish a lot of the same streams in SEPA. I have no exact measurements on any of these fish, but I'd guess they're all in the 10-12" range.

http://s1265.photobucket.com/user/ryan268/slideshow/Brookies%20thread/Brookie%20thread

 

[steveo27]

Neat thread. Love seein all the pics.

Ive caught a few larger brookies this year, in the 10-11" range, that could have been wild fish. They definitely show a lot of the characteristics of wild fish, but they were all caught up stream of stocked water so they could have just been holdovers. They resemble some of the fish posted in here though. Once they start getting bigger, it gets harder for me to tell.

 

[wildtrout2]

I found this not so great pic of the 12" native I mentioned before. It has what I believe to be a scar from a blue heron attack? FWIW The ground is wet where it lays.

 

[rrt]

After nearly 50 years of fly-fishing, I am still looking for my first 12" wild brook trout, though I have caught hatchery dumbbells up to 18". I admire the lovely wild brook trout in your pics.

 

[Acristickid]

If I did not know I would say by the looks of the fish I posted- I'd say it's a holdover stocker. Not that I absolutely know for sure its wild but that's my guess and why I posted it.

Caught last June to a pmd dry fly in the upper Big Hole River MT where no stocking occurs. It is a freestone river I recall taking the pic because it was I believed I was the largest wild brook (not native there)I had ever landed. The hole I caught it out of I also caught a rainbow, brown and a grayling in pmds.

Another funny thing that I remember was -the PMD hatch was in progress and I had done pretty well and another gentleman angler parked and walked down to the hole and asked me how the fishing was.

After we talked a minute he told me that he came from London to fish this hole on this river; I immediately gave up my spot , handed him a PMD , which he was thrilled that he caught a brook trout on. That was good stuff.

 

[mkerr]

Caught a few nice ones last year. Really looking forward to finding some new water and hopefully some more brookies.

 

[wildtrout2]

A nice 11" native, but this one was darker than usual.

 

[turkey]

acristickid wrote:
...he told me that he came from London to fish this hole on this river; I immediately gave up my spot...

That's pretty cool.

 

[mjkraw]

Didn't get an actual tape on this old dinosaur, if I had to guess, I'd say around 15-16".

 

[Reeder]

That is a monster.

 

[geebee]

yikes, that is a slab - a Maine fish I'd guess ?

it definitely looks like a lake run with that hump - river residents imhe tend to be more streamlined.