Twelve Things You Should Know About Brook Trout Fishing

With brook trout fishing season here in Maine just kicking off for another year, I thought it might be helpful to do a short article on some of the easiest, simplest and often little known things to help out any aspiring brook/stream fisherman out there.

Probably the most important thing for a beginning fisherman who wants to chase down and capture the “speckled trout” is to understand where they live. Typically you will be looking for “pristine” waters, that move fairly quickly and stay between the temperatures of 45-61 degrees fahrenheit. It is important to note that although surface temperatures on some streams exceed the 61 degree threshold, trout will still be found in spring holes along many streams, where the temperatures are considerably lower just a few feet deep. Another factor to consider, is that while ordinarily moving water provides a trout with adequate oxygen saturation, some slow moving spring streams offer substantially better oxygen saturation in a very slow moving, cold water. I have seen streams of the latter nature produce some very large trout on occasion.

A very important factor that many fisherman discount or disregard altogether is the trout’s ability to see a fisherman on shore. The first comment I will make on this fact is that the difference may not always be discernible in the comparison of the number of fish caught by fisherman who do or do not attempt to be stealthy on shore. The difference is quite often in the SIZE of the fish caught between the two types of fisherman. I have, in the past, fished with fishermen of both types. I have seen both types of fishermen catch substantial numbers of fish. The stealthy fisherman, however, almost always nets the trophy size fish. The truth is that the larger fish are the ones that learn to survive predation in the streams by moving clear when a predator appears on shore. The splashy, overbearing fisherman will often never even cast to that fish, let alone get him to take a lure or fly.

The color of your clothing is very important. Avoid wearing the big bold yellows and reds, wear natural colors such as gray, brown, green and white. Avoid blues if at all possible. Sometimes they can look quite natural, but other times they will not. A trout will identify a strange color as easily as it will your outline, or your foot almost smashing into it. Blend into the background. Remember, trout see outside the water at approximately a 45 degree angle, and are most often looking upstream. Stay outside that line of sight to the area you are fishing, and your odds will increase dramatically.

Fly fisherman, learn a few different casts and leave the waders in the truck! Many novice and experienced fly fisherman correlate the art of fly-fishing very closely with stomping streams wearing a set of hip waders. Not only is this wrong, but it is ridiculous! Nothing will frighten off potential takers any faster than you lumbering, splish-splosh through a good fishing hole. Learn a few different casts, there are dozens of ways to put a fly on a nice hold or pool, and some of them will not require you to be standing ten to fifteen feet off shore. I personally know a fly fisherman who seldom dons a pair of waders, yet successfully catches above average numbers of trout right through the warmest months of the year.

Pay attention to your environment. I often stand for five to ten minutes, soaking in whatever details I can over a fishing hole before I start fishing. I’ve been called lame, crazy, romantic and lazy over the years by individuals who wanted to hurry the process. Just remember, most of the work involved in successful trout fishing is done before you make your first cast.

Understand your quarry. I remember a couple of years ago, I happened to have a few hours one afternoon and headed off to my local spring hole to try and hook a couple of trout for a fresh dinner. This spring hole is fairly well known, yet somehow continues to produce fish at a nearly prolific level. This day, however, was not one of those prolific days. As I arrived I overheard two fishermen talking about how they’d been fishing it up and down all day, with only one short fish to show for it. Huh, I thought. Wonder what they’re fishing with. After a few minutes of conversation it was apparent that one had been bouncing worms around the hole, while the other had been wandering up and down the stream, throwing flies. They were both exhausted and frustrated. I went to my truck, grabbed my spincasting reel and tied on a little 1/8 oz Super Duper with a treble hool. This particular one was the gold style with the holographic imprint on the side. Within 20 minutes I had two keeper fish, if I remember correctly both between 12″-14″ and was walking triumphantly back to my truck. I could have hung around half the night, walking up and down the stream, dragging that lure along in front of all the big trout but I didn’t. I had what I needed. Why were the fish biting that and not the flies or worms? Most fishermen would tell you it was because the lure triggered a territorial or predator instinct that forced the larger fish to strike although they were probably not hungry. I cannot vouch for the truth of this statement, but I can say that without a doubt, it works.

Never underestimate a potential fishing hole. A few years ago, my daughter and I were driving back across a logging road that cuts down across a local mountain, when we decided to stop for lunch. As we were eating we were watching a trickle of a stream come down off a rock face. Before long we were dropping tiny jig lures down into a pool of water no more than eight feet in diameter. To our surprise, it was between thirty and fourty feet deep! We figured out that the larger fish were deeper in the hole, and after weighting our lines, we were pulling 8-10″ native squaretails out minute by minute. To this day, the “magic pothole” story is the one that gets told and disbelieved by the campfires in the summer time. But you know what? It’s still there and I stop by at least once a year just to make sure the fish are still there!

Fish bogs and swamps early in the season. This is a lesson I’ve only learned more recently in my fishing life. Do you wait until May before your favorite trout stream fills up with fish for the year? Do you ever stop to consider where the fish are before that? A friend of mine, who has been trout fishing for many more years than me, took me last year to his secret fishing hole. It was a bog about seven to nine hundred feet off one of my favorite trout streams. I was amazed. We caught football size fish over and over again! Sometimes those big fish will just get in there, from what he said, and stay until the water temperature moves them on once the summer heat hits. These are fat, girthy fish that have not had to struggle through the winter, and they are worth the extra work you will put in to catch them!

Fish light-line, light lure. Don’t use heavy line, big poles or big, thunking weight on your lines. Any excess weight, disturbance or noise will move the fish on. Your lure or bait will sink on it’s own, you don’t need to hammer it down into the mud. If you are having a difficult time casting and are thinking about adding some weight to do that, think again. Be clever and approach from a different angle. Better yet, gain skill with your rod and reel. Additionally, if you are using a big bass rod and reel, you won’t have much fun pulling a 10 inch trout in, no matter how much fight he’s got.

If you want to really take care of your fishing hole, there is more to it than just keeping it secret. Don’t pollute it with candy wrappers, bottles or other man-made litter or chemicals. Don’t kick at shore rocks, cut down tree branches to make shore space or kill more fish than you need. The waters that the brook trout occupies are some of the purest and delicately balanced in the world. It takes only a little bit of weight to tip the scales.

Releasing fish alive: First and foremost, before handling a brook trout, wet your hands. The skin of a squaretail comprises an important part of their immune system. The oil on your hands breaks down their oils quickly and leaves them open to myriad infections and diseases. Wet hands alleviate this problem. If you aren’t going to wet your hands before handling a fish, either be prepared to kill it and take it home with you, or go fish for smallmouth bass somewhere. Leave this species alone. Another important aspect of releasing a trout is having a pair of clippers handy. Instead of trying to unhook a well hooked fish, just snip the line at the eyelet on the hook. The hook will disolve in a few days, and the fish will live on. Breaking it’s jaw by prying loose the hook will kill the fish, or disable it to the point where it cannot eat. Again, if you are not prepared to cut hooks loose, go fish another species, preferably smallmouth bass.

Most of all, have fun, enjoy nature and the sun, and if you get a chance, take somebody with you! Teach them what you know, teach them to respect the art, the game and the environment. You will be doing a service to us all!