More about The Brook Trout
HABITAT
The beauties of the brook trout and its habitat have much to do with the enthusiasm of anglers who go a-trouting. As Camp points out we always associate the brook trout with white tailed deer, the partridge and the gray squirrel. Cone bearing trees, cold purling water, some distance removed from civilization, are the true settings of trout and trouting, for the brook trout is essentially a fish of the silent places.
FOOD
As any observer would surmise by looking at a trout's teeth he is carnivorous. Crustacea, snails and other molluscs, insects and their larvae and small fishes make up the main diet of the trout although when they reach the " whopper" stage they become gross feeders and will not hesitate to snap up a small snake, water bird or even their own kind.
BREEDING AND GROWTH
The brook trout is a fall spawner, for which reason the legal season in most states closes in September or October. Contrary to general belief the brook trout does not require cold water. Providing the water is sufficiently aerated, trout will breed and thrive if it goes as high as 70 or even 80 degrees F. Ideal conditions, however, call for cold water, well aerated, with shallow spots with gravel bottom, or feeder creeks containing such places, where the fish can run up to spawn.
Spawning commences as early as August in the Lake Superior region and from the middle of October to November in mid west and New England waters. The spawning period lasts seven or eight weeks, the fish slowly working up stream, or up into the small tributaries, where the female scoops out a nest and deposits her eggs. The male - now a gaily garbed Romeo - does his "showing off" for the lady's edification and fertilizes the eggs when they are ejected; then the female covers them with gravel and leaves them. A yearling fish yields only about 200 eggs - something to be remembered by the man who is tempted to keep the little ones.
The hatching period depends on the temperature of the water. The fish culturist prefers water of from 45 to 50 degrees F. in which the fish hatch in from 45 to 60 days, but in a natural state the hatching usually takes closer to 100 days; sometimes as long as 220 days.
Growth of the fry is governed somewhat by the amount of available food and the water conditions. Ordinarily a trout weighs an ounce or less during the first year after which the growth is more rapid; a two year old fish weighs eight to ten ounces and a pound trout is usually three years old.
In waters that are much fished, especially small streams, a pound trout is considered a large one. In Maine, brook trout have been taken up to ten pounds and Frank Forrester (1848) tells of one brought into the Soo by an Indian that weighed 11 pounds. In his "Sportsmen's Gazetteer" (1877) Hallock mentions a brook trout of 17 pounds but unfortunately he gives no particulars. The present record for the Nipigon waters, and perhaps of any waters, is a specimen of 14% pounds caught in 1916 by Dr. Cook of Fort William, Ont.
EDIBILITY
One who has never tasted a brook trout fresh from the water and cooked over a fire on the streamside is not competent to pass on the edible qualities of this fish. Take small trout, cook with bacon in the open so that the flavor of the wood fire can be tasted - as the paper from our home town puts it: "nuf ced!"
GAMENESS
Beyond any possibility of doubt the brook trout deserves a place in the front ranks as a game fish. No angler ever sees one flash from an overhanging bank and seize the fraudulent feather without being thrilled, for the brook trout is the very embodiment of speed and natural grace. Once he is hooked he fights with unequaled determination and strength but he has one fault: he does not leap on a slack line. For this reason I am tempted to place him just a shade below the rainbow trout and small mouthed bass as a game fish, knowing that a great many anglers of more experience than I have had, will not agree with me. Anyway he is a grand fish worthy of all the enthusiasm he arouses in the hearts of his admirers.
Click here to learn about the rainbow trout
Other fish:
The rainbow trout
The brown trout
Other trout
Fly Fishing Quick Links:
Tackle | Rods | Reels | Flies | Apparel | Fish | Preparations | Casting | Strategy
Fly Fishing Index
© 2004 FlyFishingTricks.com. All rights reserved.
|
