Brook Trout in Strange Places

It's brooky time. I don't do very much else (fishing wise) during late fall and early winter. The brookies are active and I have streams close enough to me to fish them in the few hours I have after school. Today the stretch that I fished the most by far last fall. It fished well! I caught brookies up to 11 inches, and lots and lots of fish. I was hoping to run into the vibrantly spotted residents of this stream using streamers. I fished a slow stretch with the Edson Tiger, seeing a lot of brookies still on redds. Eventually I found one that wasn't spawning, a gorgeous yellow spotted hen. The water is very low again and super clear, which tells me the rain was not sufficient to refill the dying aquifers. At least the brook trout are still surviving, and they were out in force today! I spooked about 20 fish from 3 to 10 inches along one flat stretch.

After fishing out the upper stretch I decided to go for a long shot. I went downstream from the highway, a piece of water I have fished before but was never productive. The reason is most likely the pollution seeping out of the old bridge and the nearby sewage pipe. There is oil on the surface of the seeps and red sludge flowing from the bridge pilings. I got a heck of a surprise when a gorgeous wild brooky on the Crazy Shrimp first cast! The next pool down I tried my Pine Special streamer and got some strong takes, including from a brooky of about 8 inches. The short wet fly hook I use for this streamer may have meant the fish were short-striking. But the CS came to the rescue again and caught me a third and final brook trout. It looks like the natives are reclaiming this section of water!