Caught my first wild brown yesterday

silverfox said:
I was fishing a little headwater stream back in the spring one day up in Clinton Co. and was catching nothing but brookies. It was a great day. I was getting into skinny water way up on top the mountain and thinking about heading back when I came across a really cool plunge pool with a huge boulder hanging over the pool and made that my last stop. On the first cast in the pool I hooked into something good and got extremely excited. Turned out to be a ~13 inch brown trout. What a buzzkill.
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Drove 4 hours to fish my favorite Brookie stream in Potter. Had a long weekend planned. Got there Thursday Afternoon and fished into the evening. Caught a bunch of Brookies but then downstream I landed a couple big Brown Trout. I packed my car up, drove home and canceled my trip. This was four years ago… I’m still in counseling over that tragic event and I haven’t been back to that stream since…
 
Shawn Joseph said:
Drove 4 hours to fish my favorite Brookie stream in Potter. Had a long weekend planned. Got there Thursday Afternoon and fished into the evening. Caught a bunch of Brookies but then downstream I landed a couple big Brown Trout. I packed my car up, drove home and canceled my trip. This was four years ago… I’m still in counseling over that tragic event and I haven’t been back to that stream since…
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That seems like a gross mischaracterization of what silverfox was stating.

I hear of brown trout anglers on Spring Creek all the time getting excited as they reel in a huge brown trout, just to hear the disappointment when it's a sucker.

It is a buzzkill.

I've thought I had big brook trout on the line when it turned out to be a brown trout or a big brown trout that turned out to be something else.


It's common and most anglers have experienced it. Those that haven't don't fish enough or don't catch much..
 
sixfootfenwick said:
That seems like a gross mischaracterization of what silverfox was stating.

I hear of brown trout anglers on Spring Creek all the time getting excited as they reel in a huge brown trout, just to hear the disappointment when it's a sucker.

It is a buzzkill.

I've thought I had big brook trout on the line when it turned out to be a brown trout or a big brown trout that turned out to be something else.


It's common and most anglers have experienced it. Those that haven't don't fish enough or don't catch much..
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What if I am being serious?
 
Shawn Joseph said:
Drove 4 hours to fish my favorite Brookie stream in Potter. Had a long weekend planned. Got there Thursday Afternoon and fished into the evening. Caught a bunch of Brookies but then downstream I landed a couple big Brown Trout. I packed my car up, drove home and canceled my trip. This was four years ago… I’m still in counseling over that tragic event and I haven’t been back to that stream since…
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I can catch brown trout 5 minutes from my house. Heck, I can walk to a brown trout stream. I have exclusive access to an entire Class A classic limestone stream full of browns. There are more streams than I can shake a stick at within 30 min of my house that are 100% brown trout. The nearest brook trout stream is 20 minutes and it's too small of a stream to fish more than once or twice a year.

I go to great lengths to find brook trout streams that might be 100% brook trout. I hate driving 2+ hours to find one and still catch brown trout. At this point, it's not even about the brown trout so much as the idea that it's so hard to get away from them. I've just grown to appreciate natural environments more than anything and browns are a constant reminder of how much we've screwed things up. To me, it's like finding a beer can 8 miles back in the woods.
 
sixfootfenwick said:
Then get well, enjoy your therapy, fish more and catch more as a prescription 🤷
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My therapist after 3 years of no progress highly recommended flooding. For the last year I’ve been fishing Valley. It was excruciating for the first month catching Brown trout. But 11 months later I’m ok with the situation. Not happy but ok with it.
 
silverfox said:
I can catch brown trout 5 minutes from my house. Heck, I can walk to a brown trout stream. I have exclusive access to an entire Class A classic limestone stream full of browns. There are more streams than I can shake a stick at within 30 min of my house that are 100% brown trout. The nearest brook trout stream is 20 minutes and it's too small of a stream to fish more than once or twice a year.

I go to great lengths to find brook trout streams that might be 100% brook trout. I hate driving 2+ hours to find one and still catch brown trout. At this point, it's not even about the brown trout so much as the idea that it's so hard to get away from them. I've just grown to appreciate natural environments more than anything and browns are a constant reminder of how much we've screwed things up. To me, it's like finding a beer can 8 miles back in the woods.
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That last paragraph is very true.
I can think of a few streams I still fish that I've never caught a brown in, but I'm sure they do have a remnant population of them also.
 
sixfootfenwick said:
That last paragraph is very true.
I can think of a few streams I still fish that I've never caught a brown in, but I'm sure they do have a remnant population of them also.
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I know of a bunch of class A Brook trout streams that I fish in North Central Pa that have zero brown trout.
 
silverfox said:
I can catch brown trout 5 minutes from my house. Heck, I can walk to a brown trout stream. I have exclusive access to an entire Class A classic limestone stream full of browns. There are more streams than I can shake a stick at within 30 min of my house that are 100% brown trout. The nearest brook trout stream is 20 minutes and it's too small of a stream to fish more than once or twice a year.

I go to great lengths to find brook trout streams that might be 100% brook trout. I hate driving 2+ hours to find one and still catch brown trout. At this point, it's not even about the brown trout so much as the idea that it's so hard to get away from them. I've just grown to appreciate natural environments more than anything and browns are a constant reminder of how much we've screwed things up. To me, it's like finding a beer can 8 miles back in the woods.
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It’s perspective. I’m a fisherman. I’m not disappointed to catch a sucker instead of a trout. I enjoy fooling, fighting and landing fish. I’m not prejudice to the race of the fish 🎣 😂. I enjoy them all for what they are and enjoy every experience I have.

And really, unless we’re American Indians, we’re invasive species and we should all go back to Europe or wherever our ancestors hale from. Just food for thought…
 
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Shawn Joseph said:
It’s perspective. I’m a fisherman. I’m not disappointed to catch a sucker instead of a trout. I enjoy fooling, fighting and landing fish. I’m not prejudice to the race of the fish 🎣 😂. I enjoy them all for what they are and enjoy every experience I have.

And really, unless we’re American Indians, we’re invasive species and we should all go back to Europe or wherever our ancestors hale from. Just food for thought…
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Weird connection there.

So, if we dont appreciate brown trout in places they shouldn't be, then we should move back to were ever our ancestors come from?

Using that same logic, if one doesnt advocate and help native brook trout they should not advocate for reparations to Native Americans or any reclaiming of land for them.


It's an apples to oysters comparison to begin with.


It's fine you appreciate your experiences and I do believe people like myself and silverfox appreciate brown trout when we are targeting them.


I just don't get how that relates to wanting, desiring, advocating or trying to install a niche for native fish undisturbed by invasive species detrimental to their well being
 
Shawn Joseph said:
It’s perspective. I’m a fisherman. I’m not disappointed to catch a sucker instead of a trout. I enjoy fooling, fighting and landing fish. I’m not prejudice to the race of the fish 🎣 😂. I enjoy them all for what they are and enjoy every experience I have.

And really, unless we’re American Indians, we’re invasive species and we should all go back to Europe or wherever our ancestors hale from. Just food for thought…
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I just prefer to catch fish where they belong. Perspective indeed.

We migrated. Nothing brought us to this continent.
 
BradFromPotter said:
So you didn't realize it was a brown till the next day?
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Correct. I’ve been fishing here since February and have only caught brookies. I know from the surveys that there are browns but just didn’t even give another thought in identifying it. From above it was very dark. It was similar in size to the larger brook trout I’ve caught here. It was getting late and I was pleased to land a decent fish. Removed the hook, snapped a pic, and headed back to the truck. First look at the picture and I was quite surprised.
 
My ancestors or English mostly, I wonder if I move to England, support brown trout over the invasive species there, will they tell me to go back to America where i was born? 🤷
 
sixfootfenwick said:
Weird connection there.

So, if we dont appreciate brown trout in places they shouldn't be, then we should move back to were ever our ancestors come from?

Using that same logic, if one doesnt advocate and help native brook trout they should not advocate for reparations to Native Americans or any reclaiming of land for them.


It's an apples to oysters comparison to begin with.


It's fine you appreciate your experiences and I do believe people like myself and silverfox appreciate brown trout when we are targeting them.


I just don't get how that relates to wanting, desiring, advocating or trying to install a niche for native fish undisturbed by invasive species detrimental to their well being
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It’s not really a weird connection at all. If we weren’t here all the native brook trout would still be where they once were. Right? Just playing devil’s advocate. All of our actions the past century or so have caused the decline in fisheries because you and I are an invasive species to North America.
 
sixfootfenwick said:
My ancestors or English mostly, I wonder if I move to England, support brown trout over the invasive species there, will they tell me to go back to America where i was born? 🤷
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I guess they could lol
 
Shawn Joseph said:
It’s not really a weird connection at all. If we weren’t here all the native brook trout would still be where they once were. Right? Just playing devil’s advocate. All of our actions the past century or so have caused the decline in fisheries because you and I are an invasive species to North America.
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You gonna go tell some native Americans that they’re invasive? I dare ya. Again, we migrated here. A band of sporting giants didn’t collect us from the wild in Africa and ship us here.

You’re right we caused this, and I just find it funny how we want to fix all of our other mistakes but stop at this one.
 
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