Brookies

Thats a nice fish. Its been awhile since I've caught a larger native. Truth be told I haven't had much time for fishing since the pandemic.

Your post inspires me to make some time this fall.

Here is one of my better ones. It's been posted here before an absolute beast of a PA male native in spawn colors next to an equally rare rod.
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Beast? Thou beest too modest, dear sir.
 
You forgot GPS coordinates to where these fishes live ,come on help us out ,Those are absolutely Beautiful and absolutely keep quiet about there where abouts,so direct message me with them there GPS coordinates,haha just kidding
 
GANGGREEN said:
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.

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Nice feesh Cuz!
 
FisherOfMen said:
Thats a nice fish. Its been awhile since I've caught a larger native. Truth be told I haven't had much time for fishing since the pandemic.

Your post inspires me to make some time this fall.

Here is one of my better ones. It's been posted here before an absolute beast of a PA male native in spawn colors next to an equally rare rod.View attachment 1641253294
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I think I’ve seen this fish before. 🤔
 
wildtrout2 said:
I know I have. Why is the reel not seated?
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It is.
It's a single ring fly rod.

The Hardy Fibalite Perfection 7'2" 4-weight was produced from 1979 to 1983. The cork is shaped into a reel seat and reel foot has one reel foot that goes into the cork, the other foot secured by the ring.

I think its the only rod made like that besides its brother 7'8" 5wt model, from that time period at least.
 

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I think its interesting the OP caught his with a Sulphur dry, I caught mine with a Goddard Caddis being skated and twitched. The more I think of it the majority of my larger brook trout have come on dry flies, specifically Caddis of some variety. Some others on buggers but most on dries.

OP what did you catch your others on?

Brookies aren't selective by any means but are very spooky with their eyes being positioned higher and can see surface disturbance much better. I like low and clear conditions when hunting larger brook trout. They are easier to find and it doesn't add anymore to their vision but they are certainly on guard and nearly impossible to catch with anything but a dry fly it those conditions. Just my experience from a long time fan of hunting bigger natives.
 
FisherOfMen said:
It is.
It's a single ring fly rod.

The Hardy Fibalite Perfection 7'2" 4-weight was produced from 1979 to 1983. The cork is shaped into a reel seat and reel foot has one reel foot that goes into the cork, the other foot secured by the ring.

I think its the only rod made like that besides its brother 7'8" 5wt model, from that time period at least.
Click to expand...
Thank you, that's interesting. I just learned something.
 
FisherOfMen said:
I think its interesting the OP caught his with a Sulphur dry, I caught mine with a Goddard Caddis being skated and twitched. The more I think of it the majority of my larger brook trout have come on dry flies, specifically Caddis of some variety. Some others on buggers but most on dries.

OP what did you catch your others on?

Brookies aren't selective by any means but are very spooky with their eyes being positioned higher and can see surface disturbance much better. I like low and clear conditions when hunting larger brook trout. They are easier to find and it doesn't add anymore to their vision but they are certainly on guard and nearly impossible to catch with anything but a dry fly it those conditions. Just my experience from a long time fan of hunting bigger natives.
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I've honestly forgotten, but I often fish a dry dropper for Brookies and at least some of the bigger fish would have been taken on small (size 18) nymphs. My PB was taken on a dry fly though, a Purple Haze if I'm not mistaken.
 
GANGGREEN said:
I've honestly forgotten, but I often fish a dry dropper for Brookies and at least some of the bigger fish would have been taken on small (size 18) nymphs. My PB was taken on a dry fly though, a Purple Haze if I'm not mistaken.
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Speaking of dry dropper.

My idea has been to fish a large Goddard Caddis (floats like a cork) and an Adam's Wet (16-12). The technique works well because you can dead drift the caddis and wet for anything finicky that doesn't want movement, this also allows the wet to get some depth, then skitter the caddis at the end while swinging the wet, which usually elicits strikes. The use of no split shot or beads helps in low and clear water.

Funny enough, in a mixed population watershed, I can see a clear ratio between brown trout and brook trout. You can catch either on either fly but the browns take the wet far more and the brookies are are pretty split between either. Only a few times have I ever doubled up. Never with both species.

I have no idea why Browns clearly prefer the wet fly.
 
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Tend to agree with dries and extreme stealth taking the larger brookies in low water. In normal conditions though I've found a golden stonefly nymph to be most effective, followed by small streamers. no single pattern of streamer has stood out above the rest for big brooks for me. I posted one earlier this year that was 13-14" and ate a 3-4" long articulated streamer. Another that stands out in my memory was a hair shy of 12" and ate a size 2 meat whistle.
 
sarce said:
Tend to agree with dries and extreme stealth taking the larger brookies in low water. In normal conditions though I've found a golden stonefly nymph to be most effective, followed by small streamers. no single pattern of streamer has stood out above the rest for big brooks for me. I posted one earlier this year that was 13-14" and ate a 3-4" long articulated streamer. Another that stands out in my memory was a hair shy of 12" and ate a size 2 meat whistle.
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Lol catching a brook trout on a 3/4" articulated streamer is wild.
 
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