Tank of a native....

[GANGGREEN]

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

The one with the white/grey blank? That's a 7' 3WT glass rod that Midwest Custom Fly Rods did for me. Cheap rod (I THINK I paid around $140 for it, but I don't remember exactly) and it fishes VERY well. I don't use it a whole lot because I have so many other rods including a bunch of bamboo in the same range, but that rod's a workhouse that delivers small dries as well as it horses big fish caught with nymphs and indicators. Just a great little rod.

 

[wbranch]

Just imagine if PA had brookies like these!

 

[GANGGREEN]

Boy, wouldn't that be something?

 

[keirns4]

Boy, wouldn't that be something?

The State would stock over them.

 

[5footfenwick]

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.

I’m with you on this. I can’t stand when people edit photos and mess with changing them. I never post any doctored photos either. Seems like cheating and doesn’t do the uniqueness of the fish any justice.

~5footfenwick

 

[5footfenwick]

Really awesome fish congratulations! I know that got the adrenaline flowing 😉!
~5footfenwick

 

[Streammagic237]

Boy, wouldn't that be something?

Such a great fish you caught, I think it's even better you knew of it and had seen a time or two just makes it even better . IMO

Congrats

 

[Shawn_H]

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.

View attachment 1641245586

I’m just curious - what makes you so certain this isn’t a wild fish? It’s not as pretty as the first but it’s a good looking fish.

 

[CinnamonJoe]

I don't think PA does this, but many northern tier states/Canadian provinces will stock native strain brookies in isolated, spring fed ponds with what the local fisheries biologists feel have adequate oxygen and forage to support them surviving over several growing seasons. I can't say they broke state records, but I have seen some fattys come out of some those ponds, on a fly, through the ice, or on garden hackle. Its not Labrador, no; nor is it a stream bred native, for sure; but for the rest of us on 'PoOrvis' finances, it might be worth a look, if you want a chance at a really big one that won't break the bank. Most of the guys I know playing that game are using canoes or float tubes, with sink tips or outright sinking lines, trolling grey ghosts or smelt-like streamers. This would be in northern WI, boundary waters/Ely area in MN, the UP of MI, or Algoma area of ONT relative to the midwest where I live. Next, we could open a can of worms on the Nipigon watershed in ONT and potential DIY trips up there, though lately the political climate is not as favorable for travel to Canada, or so I have heard. Its all good.

Super nice brookies! thanks for sharing! 😊

 

[Mikey2006]

I’m just curious - what makes you so certain this isn’t a wild fish? It’s not as pretty as the first but it’s a good looking fish.

Look at how deformed its fins are. They also look disproportionate to its body size, and its colors are very dull and muted. No doubt a stocked fish

 

[rustbeltwilds]

I’m just curious - what makes you so certain this isn’t a wild fish? It’s not as pretty as the first but it’s a good looking fish.

Tail

 

[GANGGREEN]

I’m just curious - what makes you so certain this isn’t a wild fish? It’s not as pretty as the first but it’s a good looking fish.

Aside from the markings and color being a bit "off" compared to any natives that I've caught in the area, it's mostly just familiarity with the watershed where I caught him. Like I said before, there are a couple of potential culprits, but I'm almost sure that one was stocked at one time, though he may have been in the stream for a long time.

 

[rrt]

They are all beautiful brook trout. I've never caught a wild brook trout over 11".

 

[GANGGREEN]

They are all beautiful brook trout. I've never caught a wild brook trout over 11".

Thanks, and don't feel badly, you aren't alone. I hear guys talking about crazy stuff all the time, but evidence is always lacking. I suspect few PA anglers have ever taken native Brookies of that size.

 

[wildtrout2]

Thanks, and don't feel badly, you aren't alone. I hear guys talking about crazy stuff all the time, but evidence is always lacking. I suspect few PA anglers have ever taken native Brookies of that size.

In 40+ years of chasing native trout, my PB is 13.5" on Jeans, back in 2009. I've come to the realization I'll likely never catch one bigger. IMO, any native 11" or bigger is a real trophy.

 

[tjsingle]

In 40+ years of chasing native trout, my PB is 13.5" on Jeans, back in 2009. I've come to realization I'll likely never catch one bigger. IMO, any native 11" or bigger is a real trophy.

Agreed on the 11" benchmark. My biggest PA brookie is 13"~, and I haven't came close to beating it. I think my dad's biggest was 12-13" as well. There's a reason why I head north to Maine annually!

 

[Swattie87]

Here’s my no sot scientific take on Brookie sizing in PA.

< 5 inches - Dinks. You catch these sometimes, but I’m generally trying not to. Part of why I still use relatively big flies Brookie fishing.

5-7 inches - These are the common catchable size Brookies. Most of what you catch falls into this range.

8-9 inches - These are good fish. If you’re fishing a good stream, in decent conditions, you’ll likely get a shot at a couple of these per outing.

10-11 inches - These are once a year type of fish for me. And I small stream fish a lot. They’re out there, and on most streams this is about what they top out at. Still, far from an every outing type of occurrence.

> 12 inches - These typically only exist in PA in relatively specific circumstances. Access to bigger water or an impoundment, or a very remote stream, or both, usually required. Absence of Brown Trout helps. My biggest is 13”, and I have two 12”ers, lifetime. Biggest I’ve ever seen was a 14.5”er (taped) caught by my buddy. Same day that I caught one of my 12”ers. Definitely a unique (and transient) situation in the system that was producing them. It also produced my 13”er and another low teens fish caught by another board member. The big fish there now are Browns, sadly.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I've caught 2, maybe 3 11"+ brook trout. One was upwards of 13". That one was in a system like Swattie described. The other was in a "limestone influenced" stream, the third was just in your regular old freestone crick in NCPA! But, for as often as I fish for brookies, super rare.

 

[sarce]

OP that is a stunning PA brook trout, one to be very proud of.

I lost one last year that was every bit of 15" if not 16". It was foul hooked unfortunately and got downstream of me into strong current, and the hook pulled before I could find a way to wade to it. That was easily the biggest PA wild brook I've tangled with outside of a well known limestone spring. I hope I can get back to that place before browns take it over, they are already present. It was right along a road in a coal region town. Did land a 12" the same day.

11" has been noticeably easier to achieve than true 12" for me, but still rare. I think I've caught 5 at 11" vs 2 at 12". Expand to neighboring states and I can add one more 12" plus another half dozen 11".

All this is since about 2008 or so when I started to really get obsessed with wild trout. I've probably averaged fishing once a week since then so it's a lot of time even if not a ton of years.

 

[hooker-of-men]

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..

Funny enough, my buddy and his wife are there right now. I received some iwana photos and videos last night:

I guess he almost had a yamame too but missed it. Pretty cool.