Brookies

GANGGREEN

GANGGREEN

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May 26, 2016
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We've had some cool nights and I presumed that at least my mountain streams are probably fine, so I went to check one out this morning. It was a bright, sunny day and the water is low and clear, so far from great conditions, but water temp was just under 60, so I decided to give it a quick shot. In less than an hour, I took 5 or 6 natives on a small Sulphur dry (probably a 16), including this absolute hammer. This one measured 12.25" and while not my personal best, he was almost surely in my top 3 or 4 PA native Brookies of all time (I've caught bigger out west, but they aren't native there).

I don't really like fishing in late fall when the Brookies or Browns are very close to spawning, so I get a short window of time, generally in September to fish for them. I'm really looking forward to that this year.

Brookieone.jpg
Brookietwo.jpg
 
I should also mention that this fish fought like "the boss" of the stream. I've never had a fish of that size that put up that sort of fight. You'd presume that you could handle him pretty easily on a 4 WT rod and 5X tippet, but he dragged me around pretty good until eventually getting snagged up in some brush under a bank. I ended up netting him and the brush at that point, but kudos to him for the fight. Well done sir.

In fact, he was under an undercut bank, and I did see him rise before casting to him. Given where he was, how he was behaving and how he fought, I presumed that I had a 16 or 17" Brownie on. I was pretty excited when I saw what it was.
 
GANGGREEN said:
I should also mention that this fish fought like "the boss" of the stream. I've never had a fish of that size that put up that sort of fight. You'd presume that you could handle him pretty easily on a 4 WT rod and 5X tippet, but he dragged me around pretty good until eventually getting snagged up in some brush under a bank. I ended up netting him and the brush at that point, but kudos to him for the fight. Well done sir.

In fact, he was under an undercut bank, and I did see him rise before casting to him. Given where he was, how he was behaving and how he fought, I presumed that I had a 16 or 17" Brownie on. I was pretty excited when I saw what it was.
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Given his size, I would have had a heart attack when he got snagged up! lol Good for you getting him to net. Your experience is what keeps us doing what we do. Again, congrats!
 
wildtrout2 said:
Given his size, I would have had a heart attack when he got snagged up! lol Good for you getting him to net. Your experience is what keeps us doing what we do. Again, congrats!
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Not only that, but after I got him in the net, I immediately unhooked him, before seeing that there was about a 2" hole in the net that his tail had slipped out of. I could have called him "caught" at that point, but I would have been pissed had he slipped through the net before I could at least take a photo or two. (Which reminds me that I'd better go out there with a zip strip or two and repair that hole).
 
GANGGREEN said:
Not only that, but after I got him in the net, I immediately unhooked him, before seeing that there was about a 2" hole in the net that his tail had slipped out of. I could have called him "caught" at that point, but I would have been pissed had he slipped through the net before I could at least take a photo or two. (Which reminds me that I'd better go out there with a zip strip or two and repair that hole).
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Definitely repair that hole! 🙂 I'd be heartbroken not being able to get a pic of that native. They don't get much bigger in Pa.
 
Regrettably, I wasn't able to get a pic of my PB native. At the time (2010), I had a Canon PowerShot digital cam on a lanyard around my neck for taking pics. But, when I squatted down and leaned over to unhook that native, my cam swung into the water and was ruined, along with my chance of getting a pic of the biggest brookie I will probably ever catch. I still think about that day, as long ago as it's been.
Thankfully, I do have pics of some of my better natives. These were both 11".
 

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Amazing fish. That’s a real accomplishment sticking a big one like that in the low, clear summer flows.

I’m also looking forward to September for the chance to catch a colored up specimen before the spawn gets going in mid October. The last couple years have been TOUGH fishing in my experience due to low water. Hoping for a rainy September..
 
I've caught quite a few now in the 11-12" range (honest and measured with a tape), but only a few over 12" and my PB is 12.75 in PA. As I mentioned before, I've caught them bigger than that out west, but that doesn't count.
 
GANGGREEN said:
I've caught quite a few now in the 11-12" range (honest and measured with a tape), but only a few over 12" and my PB is 12.75 in PA. As I mentioned before, I've caught them bigger than that out west, but that doesn't count.
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I've caught a bunch of 10", several at 11" over the years, but I've only ever caught three that were 12" or bigger. I'm talking 40+ years.
 
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