Tank of a native....

[GANGGREEN]

So, I saw this exact fish earlier this year and fished for him on that day to no avail (he was already spooked at that time), went back a week or two later and fished the same spot and briefly hooked him, but since then, I haven't seen him again all summer, though I've been back 2 or 3 other times, fishing specifically for THIS fish. We got some rain last night and I figured that the stream would be in good shape. I also presumed (hopefully correctly) that with the previous draught that the Brookies wouldn't be actively spawning yet and I fished briefly this morning. Lightning stuck and I landed him a couple hundred yards upstream from where I had previously seen him (twice), which was to be expected. This fish was a tank and a junkyard dog. I didn't mess with him much, but needed to get a quick photo and an estimate of his length based on the dimensions of the net. Damn......

 

[tjsingle]

Hell of a brookie. Nice job

 

[troutbert]

...and an estimate of his length based on the dimensions of the net.

What is your estimate?

 

[dryflyguy]

Wow, and congrats
Dry fly?

 

[GANGGREEN]

Wow, and congrats
Dry fly?

Size 18 Rainbow warrior dropped behind a size 16 elk and hackle caddis dry.

 

[GANGGREEN]

What is your estimate?

I'm almost sure that he's 12.5-12.75", a bona fide unicorn in Pennsylvania.

 

[ANF-Hiker]

That's a tremendous native trout for PA. Congrats on the catch and a beautiful photo!

 

[wildtrout2]

Congrats, that really is a big brookie! Natives that size are a true rarity.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

That's a great trout of any breed! Glad you didn't say exactly where you got him.
(There's another thread on these pages that has me suspicious of the unbelievable, but I'm assuming the best in this case.)

 

[Swattie87]

That’s a peach.

 

[nd1001]

Beautiful fish! Congrats.

Last night I was revisiting a Rolf Nylinder video where he travels to Japan. The small stream anglers there call themselves “Shaku hunters.” Their goal is to catch an iwana (local char variety) that measures one “shaku” (a traditional measurement based on the length of the human forearm, standardized to 30.3 cm).

I looked up the conversion and that is about 11.93 inches. Kind of funny that across the world here in the PA mountains, that size is similarly about the threshold for what many would consider a “trophy” of our native char. Probably a foot is a logical cut point on the imperial system.

Guess you’re a shaku hunter now! Or maybe we need to make up a PA-equivalent term..

 

[rustbeltwilds]

Awesome catch and colors !!!

 

[GANGGREEN]

That's a great trout of any breed! Glad you didn't say exactly where you got him.
(There's another thread on these pages that has me suspicious of the unbelievable, but I'm assuming the best in this case.)

I assure you this is for real, it was caught on a Pennsylvania stream with plenty of public access and it was undeniably a wild/native Brookie. Oddly, I chose to take advantage of our nicer water flows after last night's rain, so I fished a medium-sized wild Brown trout stream this afternoon. Guess what I caught? A Brook trout, but NOT a native/wild fish. God knows how he got in there (this is a Class A Brown trout stream), but there are multiple possibilities. I suspect a lot of people would post this and claim that it was a native (and they'd get plenty of responses that the fins looked great, the colors were right, yada, yada, yada and that it must be a wild fish), but I'm not going to kid myself and I'd never try to pass it off as a wild/native when I strongly (almost 100%) suspect that it's not.

Here's that fish. He really is pretty and he's surely been in the stream for a while, but he's not a wild fish.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Awesome catch and colors !!!

Thanks. I should also note that this photo wasn't doctored any. Another of my pet peeves are the guys who post photos that have clearly been touched up and vibrancy/saturation to the moon. I'm not sure I understand why anyone would do so, but they do it daily.

 

[troutbert]

Thanks. I should also note that this photo wasn't doctored any. Another of my pet peeves are the guys who post photos that have clearly been touched up and vibrancy/saturation to the moon. I'm not sure I understand why anyone would do so, but they do it daily.

Some cellphone cameras have the saturation turned up to 11 as a default.

 

[wbranch]

So, I saw this exact fish earlier this year and fished for him on that day to no avail (he was already spooked at that time), went back a week or two later and fished the same spot and briefly hooked him, but since then, I haven't seen him again all summer, though I've been back 2 or 3 other times, fishing specifically for THIS fish. We got some rain last night and I figured that the stream would be in good shape. I also presumed (hopefully correctly) that with the previous draught that the Brookies wouldn't be actively spawning yet and I fished briefly this morning. Lightning stuck and I landed him a couple hundred yards upstream from where I had previously seen him (twice), which was to be expected. This fish was a tank and a junkyard dog. I didn't mess with him much, but needed to get a quick photo and an estimate of his length based on the dimensions of the net. Damn......

View attachment 1641245577

Wow! Just an amazingly beautiful brook trout. Probably a once in a lifetime PA wild brook trout. Congratulations 🎊

 

[GANGGREEN]

Some cellphone cameras have the saturation turned up to 11 as a default.

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that. I know that there are portrait modes and other modes that do so, but I wouldn't think the standard camera setting would feature increased saturation. Once again, not sure I understand that. Having some background in photography, I DO understand that different lighting conditions can and do affect such things, but sometimes what you see posted just look like clown photography.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Wow! Just an amazingly beautiful brook trout. Probably a once in a lifetime PA wild brook trout. Congratulations 🎊

To date, this is my personal best PA native Brookie (after 60 years). I am happy/proud of the fact that I've also caught several others this year in the 10-12" range that would likely be PBs for many/most guys. I can't expect to ever catch a nicer one here, but I'll certainly continue to hope to do so. Here's one of them with the same net to show some perspective.

And here's another one, also taken this year.......

 

[wbranch]

While not as beautiful or rare as the OP's brookie this was my best hybrid. A nice Tiger. I've posted one of these in the past.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

To date, this is my personal best PA native Brookie (after 60 years). I am happy/proud of the fact that I've also caught several others this year in the 10-12" range that would likely be PBs for many/most guys. I can't expect to ever catch a nicer one here, but I'll certainly continue to hope to do so. Here's one of them with the same net to show some perspective.

View attachment 1641245589

The fish is stunning, but I've oggling the rod, TBH!