Saturday, February 6, 2016

A Connecticut Native

He has been around since the last ice age, proof of this can be seen in the white icy edges of his fins. When the first settlers arrived from Europe they found him in the streams that flowed clean and cold. He was at home in the deep lakes and the beaver ponds, his only threat came from nature.

Soon the growing population of a new nation, and  everything  needed to supply that population began to boom. Towns and cities sprang up on the banks of rivers and streams, The waterways were dammed, mills and factories were built to supply the needs of a growing nation.

The natives homes were becoming less and less. This encroachment caused the native to go into survival mode. He retreated to the headwaters of tiny streams, streams that provided safety from the swell of man. He became prolific in these streams, and at times his numbers exceeded what the little streams could handle. His growth was stunted, for the streams could not provide the food needed to reach larger size. But survive he did.

Today this native is making a comeback. While he may never be the giant in size that he once was, he more than makes up for it in his beauty. His dark green back with worm like markings. His sides are spotted with gold and red dots the latter with blue halos. His fins are orange with edges that are black and tipped with white. His beauty is enhanced come the natives finest season, Autumn the time when his belly is the brightest orange. A true wild jewel of the stream.

I have had a long and wonderful relationship with this native, one I hope will continue.
The Wild Brook Trout.


Brk Trt...Alan Petrucci

22 comments:

  1. Hey...who is this Alan Petrucci guy?
    He sounds like a pretty smart cookie.

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    1. thedeadfisher
      Thanks
      John he has flashes at times...but just a regular guy.

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  2. Brk Trt Excellent post! Well Done !!

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  3. Brook trout were the first trout I pursued with a fly rod . I have been hooked ever since. Very good discription of this great game fish,they are truely a wonderful jewel.

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    1. Brad Basehore
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      Brad lots of us probably started the same. And many of us never changed our minds imprinted with the beauty that is the wild brook trout.

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  4. Beautiful account of the brook trout that we love. Their survival mode is most amazing, being I have seen them and caught them in the most unlikely places wherever clean water flows. I will never forget while hunting partridge when I could hunt them in my home town, having to cross a small creek that drained out of a what is basically a swamp. I surprised a bunch of small fish that I thought were minnows. I took a closer look at them and was delighted to see that they were brookies. Given half a chance, brook trout will be around for a long time. They are survivors and find a way.

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    1. Parachute Adams
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      Sam survivors they are. A lot of brook trout streams drain from swamps, as long as the water is cool they'll find their place and ride it out. Grouse and brook trout, a beautiful combination.

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  5. Replies
    1. Jim Yaussy Albright
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      Jim poetry on the very outer fringes.

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  6. My first wild trout and first trout caught on a fly was a brookie......it wasn't the biggest, it didn't put up the biggest fight but it was my most memorable and started a love affair that that will not end until I take my last breath. Beautiful post.

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  7. Alan
    There is just something special about landing native trout--thanks for sharing

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    1. Bill Trussell
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      Bill very true. Catching my next one will give me the same wonderful feeling as the first one.

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  8. Alan,
    Very well put! This is what keeps up coming back for more! Excellent, excellent blogspot friend!
    Doug

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  9. Profoundly expressed. Those native trout are truly one of Nature's living jewels. I hope, one day, I can visit the US again and spend a little time fishing for brook trout.
    Cheers,

    Steve.

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    1. Steve Hynes
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      Steve I hope when you return I might be the one to guide you on a brook trout stream.

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  10. Hey Alan,

    Love the story. It parallels what has been happening here in Wales in the Eastern Valleys. The River Taff was not so long back officially pronounced dead. Rivers ran black with coal washings or red with run off from the iron works. It was the oddest thing to be standing in a river trotting a worm in glass green water only to see a wall of black approach. It is much better news these days all the rivers 'clean' , but in a heavily populated area you still have the everyday junk that ends up in a river, but the fish don't mind that. I am sure the recovery of these rivers would in part be down to those thin blue lines you speak of, and not mans intervention. They would have still held populations of trout, flies, and shrimps etc. So this year the rod will see service on many of these waters and thanks to your writings some streams that previously I would have ignored. Not so sure the local brownies will be so grateful ;o)

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    1. Grannom
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      We have had some rivers here that have been so abused. One in particular that it used to burn, I mean an actual fire on the water. But thankfully it has been cleaned up and now provides some of our better salmon fishing. As far as stream litter it's tough to escape, "people"....
      Go get those stream "brownies" and tell us of you angling forays.

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  11. I appreciate this historical narrative that has made Alan, I now becomes clearer the existence of these trout they are really very beautiful. Thanks for sharing and publicize these examples what nature shares with us.

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  12. Armando Milosevic
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    Armando we anglers know very well the beauty in nature, not only in the land but in the creatures that swim our waters.

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