This is a comparison of two wild brook trout. One was taken last December in a small stream in Northwest CT, and the other in Red Brook Massachusetts this September. I have been trout fishing for more years than I wish to count but have never caught brook trout with this coloration. They have a beautiful bluish glow to them, with striking colored dots. Both were taken on dry flies.
Now you have me thinking. It seems I've caught blue-ish tinted brok trout, but never quite so blue. My recollection on the blue-ish ones was that it was always smaller fish, so I figured it was something they just "grew out of". No scientific research to prove that - just a hunch.
ReplyDeleteVery nice photos though.
i'm also intrigued by the fact that you got a brookie on a dry in the Northeast in Dec!
Wolfy, thanks.
ReplyDeleteIts not uncommon to take brookies on the dry so late in the year. I have had them rise to that Bomber pattern in all months of the year.
I sent a photo of the brookie to the CT DEP, and they state the color is a result of their environment. Stream bottom, mineral content of the water, etc.
I went back and looked at the one I caught on September 1st and no blue coloring at all. Beautiful fish.
ReplyDeleteMark
i remember a few years back catching some rainbows down in fairfield county that were lavender almost purple.don't remember any blue brookies.strange that the fish are hundreds of miles apart and exhibiting the same unusual trait and in differing enviroments.back 20 years ago when i was studying biology i would probally do some field workto figure this out. today i just hope to get out once and while and catch afew.no matter what the color.dep did what all biologist do when they are not really sure. they made something up.sounds convincing though. dave in north haven
ReplyDeleteShoreman, thanks. I have been catching brook trout all of my life, in many Northeast streams and these are the only two with these color that I've taken.
ReplyDeleteDave,
Yes the distance between streams is a bit strange. On the rainbows I to have caught some that exibited very beautiful purple gill plates. Perhaps they were wild stream bred trout.
That is a really beautiful shade of blue on that fish. Makes a stocked brook trout look ghostly in comparison.
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ReplyDeleteThanks.
Alan, thanks for the bomber you left at my jeep by the Farmington last week. I'll put it to good use on the Red Brook. Took no fish downstream that day. Enjoyed our chat. I like your blog. Scorton Angler
ReplyDeleteScorton Angler,
ReplyDeleteYour welcome, and thanks for the comment on the blog. The name is familiar, now I know the face. Please stop by the blog often, perhaps with a story of those browns in Scorton Creek.
I'm also encouraged that you catch trout late in the year (like now). I am not catching any in the little brook behind my house (not since August) and since this is my first season as an angler I am not sure what I'm doing wrong (but I'm very happy to be doing it!)
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