12" Freestone Wild Brookie Thread

That brook was caught in a north central PA freestone stream.
 
According to most of this board, that is impossible and they will find some reason to disagree with you. Nice fish 🙂
 
Imo that one is stocked but hard to tell from that pic.

I have caught quite a few large brookies in freestone streams over the years. Most of those streams are highly fertile freestones. Ex: slate run.

I did see one in a very infertile freestone in berks that is only 6 foot across at best. That fish was pushing 15-16". Never caught it. I watched a board member catch a 12" fish out of a very infertile freestone stream here in Lancaster. That said, it is certainly more an anomaly than the norm.
Most of my large brookies have come from limestoners.

 
Two streams in my area that I can think of that have produced brookies over 12" for me. If it were not for AMD I'm sure there would be more.
 
unfortunately I don't have pictures of big brookies from freestone streams, at least not bigger than 11 inches. But I remember 1 from a NE stream that was about 14, and one from Slate Run that was 13. Slate Run can produce big brookies, it certainly has enough food to produce them. And I've seen a few. Trouble is there are so many small fish that the big ones never get caught because there is always a small one that wants to eat more. The big ones eat the small ones though. I've also seen big brookies eating browns.
 
Chaz you gotta throw a big fly ;-)
 
Here's the only other pic I have of it. Not 100% if it's stocked or native, but knowing where we were fishing...I'm leaning towards native.
 

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I think there's a strong chance that's a stocked fish. Fins, and tail make me approach 100% chance stocked. Was it in an odd location to find a stockie?
 
Chaz wrote:
The big ones eat the small ones though. I've also seen big brookies eating browns.
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I once had a good brookie try to eat a little brown as I was bringing it in. Kept swiping at the brown pretty much all the way up to my feet. And the brook was only about 8in, but aggressive and hungry. Caught it a couple casts later.
 
Pics from a stream in Northumberland county. I couldn't find a picture but there was one caught 14" this same day. We measured it with a tape.
 

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Little late to the thread, but I caught this nice female at the mouth of a freestone stream in a tailwater (Northcentral PA). I also caught the little guy in the same hole. The female measured 15" and felt like she was full of eggs. Caught on Black Friday. Looks like the female is stocked to me though (she got tangled in my net and I had to lay her on the bank to get her out so I snapped a quick picture - I bought a new net that night).
 

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That's my 4 biggest of 2015, dont think any of them made 12 but I very rarely tape a fish......I catch bigger fish that way.
 
Nice fish Ryan. If you said that top one was 12" or 13" I woulda bought it in a second without question. I'll bet that one was 12".

Really nice male in the last pic too.

Anyone ever tell you you look like Brooks Orpik before?
 
Thanks, in that case the first one was 13 inches! Yes, I've heard that a few times, I think it must be broken nose look.
 
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