Brookies Before Dark

If you though that the tidal water was the only fishing I was going to do today, you were mistaken. I just got off of a five day stretch of really nice weather in an extremely fishy part of the country during which I couldn't fish. Naw, I need more. So I went for brook trout. 

The first fish I caught was one of the prettiest brook trout that I have ever had the pleasure of catching. When I hooked up I sincerely believed that it was a fall fish because it was so incredibly silver. And that is not where this fish's crazy color ended.

At some angles the silver iridescence faded and it looked as though I had caught a tiger trout that kept the red spots and blue halos of the brooky, which of course could not be possible, there are no browns within two miles of this watershed. Maybe, just maybe, this fish is a rogue salter. this stretch of stream does have tidal access and I once found what I am sure was a dead salter on a sandbar near the mouth once, a 15 inch wild brooky with talon holes in its head. What I do know is that I have never in my life seen a brooky that looked like this one!

The rest of the fish I caught this evening had the typical colors. This stream has a tendency to produce some spot-heavy fish and today was no exception. the Ausable Ugly did a lot of work and caught a lot of fish, including some very nice ones.

The biggest came out of the head of a pool and smashed the Ugly. It was another 8 inch fish. If I keep working, I think I can break the 13 inch barrier this year. I really do want one of those big ones, and for some reason this year is being really nice to use Yankee small stream junkies. Yesterday Alan got a personal best small stream brookie, an absolutely amazing old fish. I really really want to find one of those.