Species Profile: Brook Trout, Salvelinus fontinalis

Tactics

Brook trout, being one of the most beautiful fish in the world, and also perhaps the tastiest, are not particularly smart. Brookies are quite ravenous and do not usually exhibit the high selectivity often seen in other trouts of the stream. While live bait and small spinning lures will work wonders on brook trout, flies are even deadlier. Dry attractors like the Royal Wulff, the legendary Pass Lake, the Elkhair Caddis, and the Stimulator will often provoke brookies into savage aerial attacks. Scuds, nymphs, and streamers are also very effective. The McGinty is a classic wet fly that has been catching brookies for 100 years.  Brook trout should be conserved whenever possible, and only kept when the local population is very healthy.

Sometimes, a beaver pond can spoil a trout stream by warming the water and blocking migration. However, in a stream that might not otherwise be a good trout stream, beaver ponds can create a fertile, deep haven that allows brook trout to fluorish. Deep in the northwoods, beaver ponds exist that are hundreds of years old. Brook trout of impressive size may be found in these remote, mosquito-infested havens.